How could she know
by GreenEggsAndGraham
Summary: Jane and Maura meet after Jane's return from a four-month Leave. The two women long for friendship but get more than they could have dared hope for as their relationship evolves from acquaintanceship to friendship to... more? (Spoiler alert: YES MORE!) RIZZLES
1. Chapter 1

**A/n: **This is my first Rizzles fic, but these characters are so important to me that I couldn't get this story out of my head even if I did want to. It's been spiraling in my mind for weeks now and I am quite excited to share it. I hope that any readers will enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it, and I encourage criticism and compliments.

* * *

Jane took a deep breath in her car to steady herself. Her eyes closed as she prepared to step out onto her first crime scene since she'd been reinstated. She wasn't supposed to officially be back until the morning, but murder called. She'd be dealing with a new partner, who she'd heard only good things about, and a new Medical Examiner, who was an apparent robot according to her old partner, Korsak, and her younger brother, Frankie. Jane couldn't imagine that he would be any worse than Pike though, so she didn't find the thought all too overwhelming. She caught herself wringing her hands again, and formed hard fists as she inhaled her last calming breath, as her therapist had taught her, and, ignoring the ache in her fists, she put on her mask of assertiveness as she finally exited the vehicle.

All of Jane's nerves seemed to fly away from her as she pounded determinedly towards the yellow tape. Beat cops backed out of her way and raised the police line for her without question. She dressed quickly and in the dark, but was pleased to have grabbed one of her nicer blazers; first impressions did matter after all, and it was helping her keep her cool. The cold night air invigorated her senses and cleared her head. Jane was in her element. Finally.

As Jane approached the house she automatically started catalog the scene before her. She observed that the hinges on the white fence were bent at an odd angle, and the bushes below a window were less pristine than the ones that surrounded them. Once upon the threshold of the suburban home, Jane noticed that the scratches etched into the frame of the door were indicative of a silent break and enter, as opposed to the broken deadbolts that would have indicated a more abrupt or passionate, spur of the moment crime.

_The killer is patient. Damn. Or a creep. Let's hope for creep._ Patience was not one of Jane's strong suits.

She pressed forward into the living room of the house where the distinct smell of fresh blood embedded itself in her nostrils, and she went to intake the scene before her. Before she could get very far though, a man stood in front of her, blocking her view.

Jane tried to give him her best glare, but the way that he tried to smile at her through a cold sweat on his face reminded her of her brother, and how he used to act around the deceased.

"Detective Rizzoli," the man greeted and extended his clammy hand towards her. "I'm Barry Frost. I'm going to be your new partner. Wish we could have met under better circumstances." He glanced back at the body quickly and his dark skin seemed to pale a little more as his eyes darted back to meet hers. "I was gonna bring powdered donuts in the morning, Korsak mentioned you liked them, but..."

Jane looked at his outstretched hand just long enough for her new partner to question himself, but then she took hold of it and shook it firmly in her own. "What do we got?" Jane asked him and nodded toward the body, not completely capable of the civility required for introductions just yet, but also wanting to maintain her aura of control and professional politeness.

"Oh, uh... Looks so far like a B&E gone wrong. We're waiting on the M.E. before we can get into it. We've just got preliminary photos so far, and people talking to the person who called it in. Dr. Isles should be here soon." He looked sideways at her, looking like he wanted to speak but thought better of it.

"He should have been here before I was." Jane couldn't help but keep the annoyance out of her tone. "Wasn't I the last person that would have been called since I'm not technically supposed to be back until the morning?" She could tell that he was taken aback and regretted her harsh tone. It's wasn't his fault someone got murdered in the middle of the night, and it wasn't like she was sleeping anyway, so much as laying in her bed to stare up at her ceiling. "Sorry, I'm just-,"

"No need, detective." He put a hand up to wave off her apology. "She's here now anyway." He nodded over her shoulder and she glanced back to see a car worth well over a year of her salary pulling to a stop right behind her cruiser. Jane turned back to Frost, annoyed at the obvious show of wealth, and was about to joke about the cars men choose in relation to the concern of their junk size when his statement caught up to her.

"She?" Jane asked, but Frost didn't respond. He stood watching distractedly as the woman stepped out of her vehicle.

Jane rolled her eyes and willed herself not to turn around again, but her self control seemed impaired and she lasted only for a second before she turned and her breath caught in her throat.

Jane thought her own face was an impenetrable mask of cool, collected confidence, and that her Rizzoli swagger commanded crime scenes like no other, but the sure, high heeled steps of the woman currently walking towards the door of the house, and the effect they had on the surrounding officers rivaled Jane's own in a way she found to be intimidating, respectable and a third emotion that she didn't care to place right at that moment. Jane had trouble believing that the impeccably dressed specimen before her could be the new Medical Examiner. The Doctor dressed as if she were barreling down a runway in Paris before she got called to the crime scene. Her honey-blonde hair fell in perfect waves around her face and down her shoulders, her outfit exceedingly high-class. She maintained an aura of professionalism, but still looked out of place at a 1 AM crime scene, though her clothing wasn't what would be considered inappropriate.

Jane watched dumbstruck as the Doctor's steps didn't slow at all as she approached the police tape; as if she knew that one of the officers would lift it before she got to it. She was right, but her hand nonetheless lifted her M.E. badge towards the officer as she passed him, under the tape, without taking her eyes off the fence, then the bushes, and then the scratches on the door frame.

"Detectives," said the new M.E, as she brushed passed them with a small glance and polite smile.

Before Jane could even think of anything to say about the strange behavior of the newest arrival, the rest of the Geek Squad entered behind the doctor, and she began to order them about in a way that, to Jane, could be compared to a dance at the ballet; completely controlled, well-practiced and strangely beautiful. Jane admired the incredible coordination before she tried to get her wits about her once more. Jane shook her head to clear away her thoughts and her newfound dumbness, and she approached the doctor. Jane squatted next to where the M.E. knelt next to the body of a woman.

"So doc," Jane began, "what do we got?" Jane was greeted with silence as she watched the doctor's eyes move over the body and the bloodstains before her. Jane watched the doctor's hand reach out to move the dead woman's red hair out of the way before she placed two fingers to the victim's neck as if checking for a pulse.

"Likely premeditated break and enter onto the premises where this victim died of strangulation at approximately..." Jane watched as the doctor removed her gloved hand to check the time on her wristwatch. "12:17 AM."

Jane didn't pretend that she wasn't impressed and looked incredulously at the woman next to her. "All that from checking her pulse, huh?" she attempted a joke. A joke? No. Not a joke, but what? _Focus, Rizzoli_. "Some guess." Jane chuckled lightly and looked at her new colleague.

"I do not guess." The doctor finally looked at her, and Jane was once again rendered speechless as the intense gaze of the hazel eyes seemed to bore into her. "The hinges of the fence indicate that someone had trouble with the latch before they decided to simply jump the fence, their weight bending the old frame. The indents in the boxwood shrubs, the hedges outside of the window, are indicative that a person recently hid behind them to peer into this house, and the scratches on the door are consistent with multiple other break and enter cases I have cataloged that seem to be more silent than simply breaking in the lock. I do not guess... I've simply seen it before."

The doctor looked away near the beginning of her rant, but Jane didn't miss the fear flash in the doctor's eyes as she admitted the last part. The doctor began to catalog her evidence. "Susie, be sure to bag everything before returning to the lab, and do not let another beat cop step in any of these reddish-brown stains, they could be blood. I will not have another shoe print fiasco, or spend hours with police officers lined up in my morgue for me to swab their feet and analyze their shoe prints." The doctor stood and waited for Jane to do the same before addressing her. "After my colleagues have completed bagging their evidence, you are free to touch the body. I am going to go back to my home office to prepare my initial report on my findings of this scene and will await the arrival of the body tomorrow to begin the autopsy."

Jane felt like she was being spoken to like she was an incompetent child, and was beginning to realize why Korsak had called the new M.E. a robot. "Reddish-Brown what? Free to touch the-? Yeah, Doc, I have been on a crime scene before. It might surprise you to learn that I know how they work. Solved a few cases myself, actually, but thanks for the permission." Jane didn't feel the need to try to keep the bitter tone out of her voice, outraged at the other woman's rudeness. Jane saw confusion flash across the Doctor's face before desperation seemed to settle in while she stammered to Jane.

"Oh, I- No I did not mean to insinuate that you aren't- I just like to follow procedu-" the pair were interrupted by the sound of retching coming from outside of the front door. Jane looked up in time to see Frost wipe his mouth with a tissue, and looked back to the new M.E, who only seemed mildly disappointed at the man, but mostly concerned. _Guess he does that a lot_.

"Damn Frost, something you ate?" Jane asked lightly, trying to make it clear that she was joking, but he looked a little bit embarrassed anyway. "Oh, hey man, don't sweat it. More than half the guys at this scene used to toss their cookies at much less." He smiled at her then, and she could tell that he was kind and that she'd like him. She could read it in his eyes that he seemed to think the same.

Jane smiled back to him and glanced at the new M.E, but the doctor looked away from the pair. "I'm heading home. My team is finishing up with the evidence and I'd like to sleep before I begin the Autopsy. She's been deceased for less than an hour based on body temperature and rigor mortis, so your team should be at least... Five hours and twenty minutes based on past cases. I'm doctor Maura Isles, by the way." Maura smiled politely once more, but it didn't meet her eyes and Jane thought she saw a certain sadness mixed into the green. "Goodnight detectives." Maura waved and walked back from where she came, got into her car with grace, and eased away from the scene.

"Well she's..." Jane began but didn't finish.

"Yeah," Frost agreed. "She's something."

* * *

Maura sat in her office chair and attempted to focus on writing her preliminary report of the crime scene she'd just come from before she settled in for the night. She liked to work when the details were fresh in her mind, though it wasn't exactly necessary as her memory enabled her to recall every detail easily and without fault. That night though, she was simply incapable of concentrating on the task at hand.

Maura hoped that with the arrival of her new colleague that she might have the opportunity of making a friend, but that now seemed improbable. She had heard about Jane Rizzoli during the last four months of her new job. She had gleaned that the detective was a professional woman, much like herself, and that Jane had a drive for success and a pursuit of justice that one would be hard-pressed to find a rival for. Maura thought that perhaps their shared interest in finding justice for the victims might offer a segue into other conversations that would eventually build into a friendship.

With that thought in mind, she had approached the scene as she would any other, but couldn't keep herself from attempting to impress the Detective. She wasn't quite sure where she went wrong, but she knew that somewhere she had insulted Jane. Maura berated herself for her conversational ineptitude.

_How is it possible for me to be able to attend Mother's galas and partake in doctorate speeches without incident, but I am unable to make it through one conversation with a potential friend without ruining everything?_ Maura knew why though, that she was able to behave amicably at social events but unable to converse appropriately with colleagues. Maura didn't care what the crowds at her Mother's art shows thought about her because she knew that they were all just as shallow a person as the next, and that she need only be polite enough to get through the evening. It was easy to talk to people who were interested in her family's money, but not in her, she was used to that. Maura was well aware of how esteemed her reputation had made her in the medical world, so her confidence while speaking to a full auditorium never wavered. She would never have the true desire to have a long term relationship with any of those people, but the longing she dearly had for a friend made her brain... Inept.

Maura had hardly ever been inept at anything in her life but she did not see a way around this fault. With a resigned sigh, she realized that she would likely continue her life the way it was, and tried to convince herself that it was enough for her. Her big, empty house was decorated just the way she wanted it, and she never had anybody to hog her blankets or sit in her favourite chairs. She could easily find a partner to fulfill whatever sexual desire she may have, and if the need for riveting conversation arose, she simply needed to log onto any of the multiple medical forums she was a part of and all of her needs would be fulfilled. She had a job to be proud of that she enjoyed immensely. So why did she still feel so... Inadequate.

Maura pushed herself away from her desk and walked out of her home office. She walked down the short hallway that led to her open concept kitchen/living room and stared momentarily at the empty couch before she decided to go to bed. Maura ambled up the stairs and into her bedroom walk-in closet to replace the shoes she had chosen back in their box, then she undressed. She turned off the light and tucked herself into her sheets and her thoughts strayed back to the detective.

Maura wasn't sure she had ever seen a specimen so well proportioned. Objectively speaking, Jane was beautiful. Her lean frame and height created an aura of confidence that was accentuated by the way the detective carried herself, and the raspy undertones of her voice raised goosebumps on Maura's skin. Jane's olive skin tone accentuated the shading on her face created by her strong, but not altogether unfeminine jaw and high cheekbones. She was very symmetrical. Maura grinned at herself for not finding one diagnosis for the detective, and except for the scars on both sides of each hand, Jane seemed to be the epitome of womanly strength and beauty.

Maura became aware of her hand drawing idle circles over her tense stomach and stilled herself. She took several deep breaths to even out her heart rate, which had begun to race, and she tried to push her thoughts away from Jane. She noted the clear signs of arousal that had occurred and fleetingly wondered at her new colleague's sexual preferences before she shook her head. Maura decided that even if the detective didn't want to be friends, she'd rather not tarnish her workplace professionalism with acting on her body's impulses. Maura began to meditate herself to sleep, but couldn't keep dreams of kind brown eyes out of her head. Sharp eyes, fearful, nervous and pained, but mostly kind, brown, and staring at her.


	2. Chapter 2

When Maura arrived at work a few hours later she was surprised to find the Detective waiting in her morgue next to the body, a coffee cup in each hand. She assessed the Detectives body language, reading it as focused and searching, as Jane stared at the body next to her. She let her eyes linger a little longer than necessary on the detectives' endless legs and appreciated the black slacks the Detective wore. Though they weren't what would be considered high quality, they accentuated Janes body very well and matched her blazer perfectly. The Detectives boots added to her already intimidating height, and her green shirt looked lovely with her skin tone. Maura glanced up to Jane's face again and willed herself not to blush as the Detective was sure to have seen Mauras eyes lingering on her. Jane gave a small smile that seemed unsure.

"Uh, hey! I brought in coffee for you. Well, I brought in coffee for Frost too, and myself. I figured it would help us all from ripping each other's heads off…" Jane chuckled nervously as she extended one of the cups to Maura. "I wasn't sure what you took in it, but I brought extra sugar and almond creamer. I thought that if your car was any indication of your choice in coffee flavouring, you'd like it a bit sweet and, well, fancy." Jane shrugged and seemed to be joking with Maura.

"Thank you, Detective, that was a very kind gesture… Though I'm not sure how coffee correlates to decapitation, I appreciate it nonetheless." Maura smiled at Jane and reached to take the coffee offered to her. She tried not to focus on Jane's scars as their fingers grazed together when Maura took the cup from Jane's outstretched hand. Maura wasn't sure how to continue the conversation to keep Jane down in the morgue any longer, so she was pleased when the Detective continued speaking on her own.

"Decapitation? What? Oh! No, it's a figure of speech, you know? Like we'll be really tired and cranky with each other? Figuratively rip each others heads off. You've never heard that before?" Jane seemed amused at Maura's ignorance, but Maura didn't feel defensive because she could still see the kindness in Jane's eyes. She knew the detective did not intend to make fun of her.

"I'm afraid I haven't," Maura stated simply. "I'll make a note of it so I know what one means the next time I hear it. You were quite right too, about the sugar and the almond creamer. I take one of each. I can see why you're such an esteemed detective around the precinct." Maura flirted. Wait, flirted? No, she was just trying to be nice, people who wanted to be friends gave each other compliments, she was sure of it. Her nerves were getting the better of her again, but Jane seemed to take no notice as she interrupted Maura's train of thought with a throaty laugh.

"Well, I'm not so sure about that last part… But here." Jane stuck her hand in her blazer pocket and produced two packs of sugar and two mini creamer containers. "I guess you can keep the extras in case you need them next time." Maura took the offered products with a thankful smile, thinking of the Detective's use of the words 'next time', willing herself not to get too hopeful. She walked over to the counter to fix her beverage. "Oh! You need this too!" Jane switched the hand she was holding her coffee in and produced a stir stick from her other pocket. She blew a bit of lint off it with an apologetic look and placed it on the counter next to Maura.

Maura got the distinct impression that the Detective had more to say so she remained quiet as she stirred her coffee. She waited for Jane to continue talking as she leaned her back against the counter beside the ME.

"I just wanted to come down and introduce myself properly… I feel like we might have started on the wrong foot, but I'd like you to know that I'm looking forward to working with another girl around here. Woman, sorry." Jane waved her free hand in the air in an attempt to erase her words. "People have told me how much better at this job you are than Pike ever was, and that your processing of scenes goes well above and beyond what any of us are used to, so I'm excited that you're here."

Maura couldn't help the bitter laugh that escaped her mouth just then, and she saw disappointment flash in the Detective's eyes before she covered the emotion up under her hard mask. Maura laughed again, more amused this time though. "They call me the Queen of the Dead, Detective, I have a hard time believing that they would say anything other than that to one of their colleagues." Maura was aware of the slight hurt in her tone but did not have the control required to hide it at the moment, so she pressed on anyway, "They like that I am not Doctor Pike, but beyond that, I'm sure they see me as a…as a..." Maura looked down into her drink trying to find the word she was searching for, though she knew the coffee wouldn't tell her, "robot." She settled on the word and was sure she heard a small gasp escape Janes lips before she continued her assessment. "They like my work, Detective, but they don't like me." Maura finished stronger than she's started and looked Jane in the eyes as she finished her statement. She was once again taken aback by the Detectives actions, as Jane reached out to put a hand on Maura's shoulder, lowering her voice to say in her usual husk.

"Maybe they just haven't been able to get to know you yet, Doctor Isles... You've only been professional and polite to me so far. I don't see how anybody couldn't like you." Jane smiled as she dropped her hand from Maura's shoulder to wrap both palms around the warmth of her beverage. "You like procedure, and you follow it. Can't really fault you for that, now can we? Anyway, just wanted to say 'hi' and ask how much time you'd need to complete the autopsy, but... Take your time, Doc, I'll wait for your call upstairs. " Jane made to leave but Maura used a single work to stop the Detective.

"M-Maura!" She said, stupidly, and Jane turned to face her again. Maura couldn't keep her cheeks from turning light pink but pressed on. "You may call me Maura." She offered a smile and was rendered breathless at the one she received in return from the Detective, Jane flashed her dimples and offered her hand towards the ME.

"Jane," Jane replied, and Maura grasped her hand without looking down at it, knowing the Detectives hands... Jane's hands, were a sore subject based on the news she'd been exposed to. "Nice to meet you, Maura... See you later, we've still gotta figure out who this girl is, and why she got strangled, so." Jane used her thumb to point to the doors that would lead her to the elevators, and with that she turned around and strutted out of the morgue, leaving a flustered but pleased Doctor in her wake.

"Jane." Maura tested the feel of the name in her mouth and smiled into her coffee before taking a sip and heading to her personal washroom to change into her scrubs. She didn't get very far though, because she noticed a case file sitting on her counter, and was sure that it had to be Jane's.

* * *

Jane stared at her hand in the elevator. Not only had she willingly put that hand on the new ME's shoulder, but she hadn't even questioned it at all. She offered it to the other woman to shake without a single thought of a scalpel. She hadn't been concerned at all about whether the other woman would feel the damage on her palms and view Jane as weak. She simply shook the women's hand. Jane let a small smile play on her lips as the tingling in the hand began to subside. Her therapist would be proud of her if she bothered to go see her anymore.

This thought sobered her strange sense of euphoria and she dropped her hand as the elevator doors opened to the precinct. She nodded to the officers who waved at her and ignored the ones that seemed to be fearful of her as she walked through the hall towards the bullpen. She wasn't sure if they were fearful that she'd snap at them or fearful that they'd break her, but Jane was just glad that nobody had yet asked if she was 'doing okay'. Obviously, she was doing okay enough to be back at work, and she wanted people's minds to think only of that. She detested the pity filled glances she caught from some of the workers of the building and hated even more so when people spoke to her like she was this fragile, broken thing. Bad things had happened to her, but she would be damned if she'd let anyone, any man, especially Charles Hoyt, keep her from doing what she was born for. She excelled at her work and would prove once again that there was no part of herself that would hold her back.

She quickly compared her current situation to being a newbie at the Academy and one of the only girls there. Once again, she would summon the determination to not only succeed but surpass all that was expected of her. She could be the best again, just as she was before, and she would push herself to solve this case, as she had many times previously.

These thoughts are what gave Jane the courage to stroll confidently into the bullpen and take a seat back at her desk as if she'd never been gone. As if that seat hadn't been empty for the last four months. She put her coffee down next to her pencil holder and started booting up her PC, ignoring the fact that both Frost and Korsak were staring at her... Well, trying to ignore them.

"You guys got something to say?" She finally broke, glancing between them with one of her lighter glares; a more curious one rather than damaging.

"Doc take the coffee?" Korsak asked as if it would have been the strangest thing in the world for her to have accepted Janes offer.

"No, I drank it on my way down, and figured I should just turn right back around after saying hello, so I could start on this one too." Jane's sarcasm rolled off her tongue almost as easily as her eyes rolled at her old partner. She looked at Frost and shook her head, disbelief at Korsak plain on her face. Frost seemed to be in Korsak's corner though when he responded.

"We just weren't sure if cyborgs would be able to drink coffee or not." Frost joked, "Looks like you owe me five bucks!" He said to Korsak. Jane looked between the pair of them with a true glare now, and utter disbelief on her face. She couldn't understand how her old friend Korsak or someone who seemed as kind as Frost, could blatantly disregard another humans emotions so easily, and she certainly couldn't keep the bite out if her response even if she had wanted to, which she really, _really_ didn't.

"Hey! You guys don't even know her! She works hard at her job! I've been back less than six hours and already I can see how much better she is then Pike, and I'll be damned if I let you two talk about her like that when she works so hard to help solve _our_ cases. Do you want her to leave? You want Pike back fucking up all our cases again? I sure as hell don't! Stop with the Queen of the Dead, Robot bullshit, alright? She didn't say anything to you when you were contaminating the crime scene with your upchucked dinner, Frost, and I'll bet you five more bucks that she's never said an unkind thing to or about either of you. She's nice, okay? She's sweet. It's not her fault you assholes didn't put in any effort into talking to her! Some welcoming she must have had with the two of you on board with the precinct bullying her. It's no wonder she wouldn't want to talk to any of you unless she had to. Come on! You're both better than that." Jane got angrier and angrier as her rant went on, and she was about to slam her fist on her desk to get the guy's attention back, as they'd looked away from her and up over her shoulder at some point, but what she heard next rendered her immobile. A sniffle. Jane knew exactly whose sniffle it was without needing to look, and felt her face get hot.

Jane's body unfroze in what felt like slow motion, and she turned to see the very woman she was defending valiantly keeping her tears unshed. Jane was sure that she had to be the colour of a lobster, and her brain seemed unable to think of any words at all anymore. Maura took a step forward and raised a file toward the group. She filled the strange silence that had overtaken the room.

"I noticed you'd left this file on my counter after you'd gone," Maura spoke a little higher pitched than normal but she kept the emotion out of her voice well. "I thought I'd bring it up to you to thank you for the coffee but I overheard..." Maura looked away from Jane, trailing off and glancing at the floor. "Jane, I..." The pause was long and silent, and Jane thought that she might be able to see the cogs turning in the other woman's brain if she _was_ a robot. "Thank you," Maura whispered, and thrust the file into Jane's hand before abruptly turning and walking back towards the elevators. Jane looked after her, wanting to follow the ME but unable to make herself move until Korsak's voice broke her out of her trance.

"Oh nice going Rizzoli, yell at us for being bullies, but go ahead and make the Doc cry." He laughed awkwardly once before shaking his head. "You're right though. A woman like that would have a hard enough time dealing with the men around here without us adding to it... Can you tell her, well... tell her we think she's great." Korsak looked at Frost to make sure the younger man agreed.

"Yeah. She's probably the only one in this whole building who hasn't chided me about my, uh... My stomach thing. Man, I feel like an ass... Sorry, Rizzoli." Frost looked Jane in the eye and she could tell he was being as genuine as Korsak.

"You guys can tell her yourselves how sorry you are for being dicks. Seriously, I leave for four months and everyone turns into a miniature Detective Crowe." Jane hit them where it hurt. _Nobody_ wanted to be compared to Detective Crowe.

"Oh! Come on Janie, we'd never stoop THAT low. But Yeah, we were gonna invite you out to drinks at The Robber later tonight... Maybe you could ask the Doc if she'd like to come too. We'll buy her drinks for her as an apology, to go along with our actual one, of course." Korsak and Frost had the decency to look ashamed of themselves and own up to the error of their ways, and Jane knew that they weren't bad guys. She sighed and shook her head at the men.

"Yeah alright, I'll go down to get the results when she's got 'em and ask her. You'd both better smack anyone you hear talking shit about her, you owe her that much. I don't care if it's the Captain." This comment got a small laugh out of the guys, and Jane sat back at her desk again, leveling their heights out and indicating that she was done talking about it. "So," she changed the subject, "where were we with the vic's ID?" She remembered exactly where they were, but closed conversation of Maura off for the time being. She didn't have the energy to sift through all of the emotions the ME had dug up inside of her, so she relinquished her mind to the case at hand. It was an escape she had opted for many times before, and to Jane, it felt like finally coming home.

* * *

Maura sat on the closed lid of the toilet in the bathroom of her office, breathing deep and willing the tears in her eyes not to fall. It had taken her a couple of minutes to work up the courage to follow Jane upstairs, and the elevator took even longer. When Maura finally arrived on the top floor it was to hear more rude jokes directed toward her character and she steeled herself, ever ready to let these kinds of comments bounce off of her. It was a well-practiced protection mechanism that had seen years of use. She had rounded the corner into the view of the detectives and was prepared to pretend that she hadn't heard a thing. What she was not prepared for was Detective Rizzoli defending her work ethic and even her character as a person. Maura had never had anybody stick up for her before and she became overwhelmed with emotion at the notion that Jane would be willing to defend her.

Maura had heard people in the cafeteria joking about Detective Rizzoli's fierce loyalty to those she cared for, especially her younger brother. Maura never could have anticipated that anyone would have been willing to stand up to her own friends and defend her; she was almost a stranger to Jane. Maura couldn't help but wonder if the Detective had already decided that she liked Maura, or if Jane was simply taking pity on her because of how standoffish her relationships were with everyone else in the building.

That thought threatened to bring fresh tears to her eyes, so she meditated her musings away, and finally changed into her black scrubs and runners so that she could escape into her work.

She checked her reflection in the mirror before leaving the room and noted that although her eyes were slightly more red than usual, nobody would be able to tell that she'd been emotional unless they were really looking; which nobody ever did. She sighed and walked with as much confidence as she could muster toward the body that was waiting for her. She organized her tools, made sure she had all the materials she needed and that her recorder was on hand for when she needed it.

"Jane Doe, approximately twenty to twenty-five years of age, died of strangulation from a soft, thick item..." Maura began, and as she made the Y incision, all thoughts of anything other than the woman before her vanished from her mind.

Maura thought that her new title, Queen of the Dead, was actually quite fitting for a competent Medical Examiner. She might even have liked it if it hadn't been for the tones people used when they used it to describe her, but Maura did indeed take it upon herself to speak for the dead; for the people who could no longer use their voice to bring justice to themselves. She served the bodies of her morgue with the utmost care and used every piece of equipment available to her to be sure that all possible evidence was found, analyzed, and used to bring down the person who committed such a heinous crime. Any member of her team would attest to Maura's rule over her domain. Queen of the Dead; not because she didn't care, but because she cared so much.

Maura cut, weighed, swabbed, spoke into the recorder, wrote down notes to reference later, and handed off some of the materials to her lab techs for analysis. Maura knew she was lucky to have the equipment that she did; being the Chief Medical Examiner of the State had its perks, one of which was fast results. It took her relatively little time to complete the autopsy (it was definitely foul play, and torture had been involved before the strangling; hence the blood found at the scene), and her lab techs brought her the necessary findings for her to be able to complete her report before lunch.

Maura could have cursed herself for not bringing lunch on that particular day, as she wanted to be left alone with her thoughts and not have to go up to the cafeteria and risk running into any of the detectives that she had seen so far that morning. It wasn't so much that she didn't want to see Jane, rather, she didn't know if she was able to process her emotions at work, and seeing the Detective was sure to make the task all the more difficult. Too bad Maura wasn't the type of person to curse. She stifled an eye roll and picked up her phone to call and let the detectives know that she had the results they needed. She found that she couldn't bring herself to press any buttons and just sat there, looking at her phone as if she were waiting for it to answer a very important question. She had no idea how long she sat there before a knock on the door made her jump and drop the device onto the desk.

"Sorry, sorry!" Jane had her hands up near her head as if Maura was pointing a gun at her, instead of staring at her with her mouth agape. "I didn't mean to scare you, I just figured I'd come down to see how far along in the autopsy you were…" Maura watched jane glance at the now empty table in her morgue and back to the ME. Maura was about to give Jane her typical line about the Detectives getting her paperwork when she was good and finished with it, but Jane continued to speak before Maura could. "It's almost lunchtime, and I ate all the donuts upstairs so you must not have had one, and I thought you might be hungry." Maura wasn't sure if Jane was stating the obvious or inviting her to go to lunch, but she felt she had already been made a fool of enough for one day, and waited for Jane to continue on her own before jumping to conclusions.

"I don't really want to get lunch with the guys… They're either gonna want to talk about shit I'd rather not talk about, or make it weird by avoiding the subject the whole time, and I don't want to go alone and have some rookie thinking it's okay to just come up to me and harass me about Hoy-... About anything." Jane finished lamely, glancing up at Maura. "Do you wanna grab a burger with me?" Maura smiled at Jane's tilted head, and at the obvious nervousness in her body language.

"No," Maura started, and she saw Jane's shoulders slump ever so slightly before she continued, "But I'd love to accompany you while you get one, and I'll opt for something a little less… Artery clogging." Maura smiled to try to convey that she did not mean to be rude, and Jane seemed to understand. "I'm done with my report too, so I'm ready to go whenever you are." Maura stood up and offered Jane the second file of the day. Jane took it with both hands and held it up in front of her chest looking sheepishly at Maura.

"Uhh, great. The guys are right, you _are _fast." Jane flashed another Rizzoli smile. "I need to grab my coat anyway, I guess I forgot it up there, but then we can go." Jane began to take a step back to head toward the elevator again, but Maura moved to stop her by placing her hand on Jane's upper arm.

"I'll go with you," She found herself saying, "It doesn't make sense for you to go all the way up there to get your coat just to come back here for us both to take the elevator to lobby to go for lunch. Let me save you a trip." Maura smiled and removed her hand from the Detective, knowing that people who experience physical trauma often don't like physical contact, even though Jane's body language didn't indicate any discomfort. If fact, her smile seemed to widen before she responded.

"Great, thanks! I'm sure this'll help us with some of our missing pieces." Maura looked at her confused before Jane continued. "Like a puzzle piece? Complete the puzzle and solve the case? It's funny. I'm funny, Maura, you're supposed to laugh." Jane teased her. Jane was teasing Maura, but instead of the anger, hurt, or numbness that usually coupled the teasing, Maura found herself smiling back at the Detective and laughing, genuinely, at her antics.

"Very funny, Detective." Maura shook her head and indicated that Jane should lead the way.

They found themselves in a comfortable silence as they moved from one part of the building to the other, both lost in her thoughts until they finally approached the men in the bullpen once more.

"Oh, hey Jane, hey Doctor Isles," Frost said, smiling a little guiltily at Maura. He pointed to the file Jane was now holding. "You're already done with your report? Dang Doctor Isles, you sure are a step above Pike. A few steps even, at least."

"Oh yeah, for sure!" Korsak chimed in, "A regular Kay Scarpetta!" He offered.

Jane rolled her eyes at the men and shook her head. "You see, this is why I said I wasn't gonna have lunch with you two." Maura watched, amused, as Jane tossed the file onto Frosts desk and pulled her jacket over herself. Maura suddenly realized that she didn't know where good burgers were made in the area and decided to ask.

"Where are we going, Jane? I'm not quite certain of where you'd be interested in getting a hamburger. I've not been to any restaurants nearby that make them." She looked up to see shock on Jane's face with a very minimal pout on her lips, and Jane just shook her head again before addressing her teammates.

"See ya later tweedle dumbs, I'll be back in an hour." She turned to face Maura again, who still had a mix of amusement and confusion in her features. Jane, never one to miss an opportunity to tease her friends, joked, "What am I gonna do with you?" She placed her hand quickly and gently to the small of Maura's back, leading her out of the bullpen and back toward the hallway.

Frost looked over to Korsak, expecting the older man to have some sort of explanation for whatever it was they just witnessed, but Korsak just shrugged and shook his head before grabbing his phone from his desk and heading down to the cafeteria to buy whatever looked good. Frost followed his lead.


	3. Chapter 3

Maura walked down the street with Jane, occasionally bumping shoulders due to the high sidewalk traffic of Boston. Neither seemed to mind the contact. Jane filled Maura in on the case; they had the victims' ID (Katie Marshall) and probable cause (a jealous ex-boyfriend). Jane seemed confident that the team would find the perp soon, and Maura was confident that her lab results would close the case, should the accused not be willing to confess.

Maura continued listening to Jane with rapt attention as they progressed towards Jane's chosen establishment, but she had to turn around quizzically when Jane suddenly stopped walking to stand next to what appeared to be a plain, pine green door. Maura couldn't help herself from looking at the metal frame with disdain, but when she glanced back at Jane, the amused smile that played across her face helped to relieve Maura of her nervousness.

"It's in here." Jane used her head to indicate to the door. "Trust me, Maur, you won't regret it." With a flash of dimples, Jane opened the door for Maura and dramatically gestured that Maura should enter. Maura chuckled at Jane and stepped inside the building, the smell of cooking immediately overtook her olfactory senses. She inhaled deeply with her eyes closed before she opened her eyes to see a rather strange setup.

There were pool tables and a couple of arcade games in the back corner of the room, with a classic bar counter in the other corner, stools and all. Behind the bar though, there were windows, through which Maura could see several people cooking. Along one of the walls was a row of wooden booths and along the other were tables that Maura thought she might see at one of the high-end restaurants she normally went to. Television screens played both sports and cooking channels silently, and smooth music filled the room. Several people were already dining and enjoying themselves in the restaurant. Although the room was an odd mix of fancy and bar-ish, nothing seemed to be out of place. The olive green of the walls served well as the chosen colour, tying the more rustic aspects of the establishment into the fancier decorations very nicely. Overall, Maura decided that she liked it so far, enjoying the effect of the opposing themes complementing each other. She glanced over at Jane, who waved at the man behind the bar.

"Hey Gino, alright if I grab a booth?" Jane nodded to the booth closest to them, waiting for the man behind the bar to reply. Maura saw similarities in their bone structure and surmised that they must be related.

"'Course, you can." Gino smiled familiarly at her and Maura. "Emma'll be out in a sec. What're you drinkin'?" Gino asked Maura as Jane once again placed her hand softly on Maura's back to lead her to their seats. Maura had to work to keep her breathing in check.

"Water is fine, thank you." Maura smiled at him and let Jane usher her about. She found that she quite enjoyed Jane's hand where is grazed the slope of her back, so she walked marginally slower than she normally would have. Maura thought it was odd that Gino only asked her for her preferred beverage, and not Jane's, but the Detective seemed confident so Maura didn't say anything.

They sat on either side of the booth and each woman looked at the other questioningly before they broke out into matching grins.

"So," Jane said the word as if it were a statement on its own. "How are you liking Boston?"

_How are you liking Boston? Really Rizzoli?_ Jane mentally slapped herself. _Get it together, what kinda question is that._

Jane was glad to see Maura didn't mind the stupid question, or that she at least had the grace not to laugh at her about it.

"I've always loved Boston. I was born here, actually, but I elected to go to Boarding School when I was ten, so I moved to Europe." Maura contemplated her response. She wasn't generally very open when it came to her personal history, but she felt a sense of familiarity with Jane, so she continued. "My mother and father had a summer house relatively close to my school, so they would spend their summers with me there, though they were busy much of the time." Maura noted that Jane seemed to be listening intently, and was glad that someone seemed so interested in what she had to say. "I came back here to attend university, actually. I went to BCU, then worked in over one hundred countries after I graduated." Jane seemed very impressed with the mention of BCU, but Maura thought she saw nervousness in her new acquaintance's face as well. "The only thing Boston doesn't have that overseas does is the spectacular variety of food." She attempted to lighten the mood again and defend the city, having read that Boston was where Jane had been born and raised.

Jane smiled and laughed at Maura before responding. "Yeah, that's fair. I'm pretty hard-pressed to find good risotto around here." Jane glanced down at her hands, which were clasped together on the table. She withdrew them and leaned back in her seat, and Maura didn't miss the dejected look that flashed in her eyes before Jane offered her a polite smile. "Very impressive, _Doctor_ Isles." Maura would have panicked at Jane reverting to using her title, but the rumble of the Detectives voice caused a very different feeling to stir in the ME's stomach.

"No more impressive than you!" Maura didn't think about the words before they flew out of her mouth, and Jane looked surprised at the statement. Maura thought an explanation was appropriate and leaned forward to supply it. "People around work talk. You're incredibly well regarded by your peers. I learned that you were the youngest person to ever receive the rank of Detective, not only in the state but in the Country. That's incredibly impressive and especially good for young women to see." Maura thought Jane looked uncomfortable and thought it was because the Detective might be threatened by Maura's accomplishments. Maura was wrong, of course, but she didn't know that, so she continued her speel about Jane's accomplishments. "The news says you're a hero." Maura watched as Jane flinched at the word.

"The news will say anything if it gets them enough views," Jane mumbled. Maura realized at Jane's unwillingness to meet her gaze, that the Detective hadn't been threatened by Maura at all; she was simply uncomfortable receiving praise. Maura closed her eyes in frustration with herself for reading another conversation incorrectly and worried about how she would steer the conversation back onto safe terrain. She didn't need to worry for very long though, as a very pregnant woman busted through the door from the kitchen, and waddled over to their table with two drinks in her hands.

"Janieeee!" The woman yelled in a thick Bostonian accent as she set Maura's water down, along with another drink (iced tea) in front of Jane. The detective stood and planted a kiss on the other woman's cheek before embracing her in a hug, well as close to a hug as she could get around the belly.

"Anna! Great to see you!" Janes body language shifted completely in front of Mauras eyes. She changed right back into the confident and friendly person that she had been on the walk to the establishment. "The place looks great! It's good to see Gino's taking good care of you. You really need to get the sign back out front though... Maura thought I was luring her to her death. I can't believe Frankie dropped the old one while replacing the bulbs for you."

The two women laughed together at Jane's remark.

"Yeah yeah," they were interrupted by Gino, who seemed to be finished behind the bar now, and he walked over to place his arm around his wife's back. "It's next on the list, cuz. It's good to see you got your brass back." He pointed to the badge on her kit belt. "Betcha' Zia Angie is pissed to see you wearin' it!" Jane smiled and nodded at him before he continued. "Who's your date?" The group of Italians turned to look at Maura, who felt her cheeks flush.

"Oh, yeah, right... _Manners_." Jane said the word like it had previously done her a great disservice. "This is Doctor Maura Isles, she's our new Medical Examiner, and an even newer work friend." Jane then needlessly pointed back to her relatives, and explained to Maura, "This is Gino Rizzoli and his wife Anna, he's my cousin." Maura noted several things about Jane as she responded to her cousin and introduced the group. Firstly, that Jane seemed to be incredibly close to her family, a fact that shot a twinge of envy into Maura's chest. She observed that Jane had called her a work friend, which eased the tension in her stomach greatly, and she noticed that Jane wasn't offended at her cousins' assumption that Maura was her date. In fact, Jane hadn't even corrected the man. Her body language didn't seem to be at all uncomfortable, and Maura quickly decided that she would like to test Jane to discover the boundaries of her new friends' orientation. Maura convinced herself that she simply had a general curiosity about it, but no personal interest. Based on Jane's reaction to speaking about her personal life, Maura knew that she shouldn't outright ask. She slyly stood and raised her hand out to Gino.

"I should be so lucky, it's just a work lunch, I'm afraid." Maura willed herself not to look for Jane's reaction to her remark. "Lovely to meet you, your restaurant is quite interesting! The way it's decorated is intriguing, to say the least." Maura shook Anna's hand next and followed Jane's suit in sitting back down in their booth.

"Oh shit, yeah, you're on your lunch eh? Well, they're already getting your stuff ready Janie, but what would you like, Doctor Isles?" Gino looked expectantly at Maura, and Jane laughed as the ME's eyes shot around the room and the table looking frantically for a menu.

"You're forgetting something, Gino." Jane made fun of her cousin, and Anna smacked Gino in the stomach with the back of her hand.

"You didn't give her a menu? What am I gonna do with you?" Anna asked her husband incredulously, but lovingly shook her head and kissed him on the cheek before walking over to the bar and coming back with what Maura needed. "Here, doll." Anna placed the menu in front of the Doctor.

It took Maura a second to be able to focus on the words in front of her. The phrase _'what am I gonna do with you?'_ Swirled around her mind and clouded her concentration. She remembered Jane joking with her, saying that exact phrase as they headed to lunch and it sped up her heartbeat slightly.

In the end, she chose a simple salad and the owners of the establishment got back to work, leaving the women on their own once more.

"They seem nice," Maura admitted to Jane, who nodded in agreement before she expanded on the subject.

"Yeah, they are, but you should meet their mother. Honestly, I thought _my_ Ma was overbearing." Jane barked a laugh out before adopting a thick Boston accent and a high pitched voice. "'Gino, you didn't call me back five minutes after I left a voicemail, so I called Janie and left her a missing persons report for you. You're a fatha now, you can't go around ignorin' your mutha and your pregnant wife.'" Jane rolled her eyes after she was done her impression and Maura laughed, which seemed to make Jane proud of herself. "Three times, she called to report him missing, Maura! Three. Times." Maura laughed again as Jane shook her head.

"Well, it seems you come from a family of very... Caring Italians." Maura smiled at herself, thinking she chose her words perfectly. Jane laughed as she'd said 'caring' and responded with a grin.

"Yeah, you could use that word I guess. You could certainly choose a couple of less polite ones too though." Jane chuckled at her joke. "What about you, what're your parents like?"

Maura hoped that she kept any signs of pain out of her face, keeping her emotions in their usual a box in her mind as she responded. "Well, my parents adopted me soon after I was born here in Boston. My father was a Doctor, like myself, but he worked on the living. He passed five years ago." She waved her hand in the air before Jane could interrupt with any comforting words. "Mother is an artist and specializes in abstract sculpting. She's quite famous in Paris right now and is well renowned all across Europe and the States... I never met my birth parents, though." Maura tried to finish with a smile but she knew it didn't meet her eyes. The finality with which Maura spoke the words indicated to Jane that the ME would rather not continue.

Jane sat across from the woman in front of her, and although they had only known each other for twelve hours, she learned that the backstory of the ME was just as vast and complicated as her own. She noticed how Maura answered personal questions about her past with her accomplishments in her work in lieu of personal details, and that when she was asked about her family, she gave a brief history of her parents' careers too. Maura didn't bring up any stories of how her father taught her to ride a bike, or of her mother taking care of her while she was sick. The Doctor stated facts about her heritage as if her history were a scientific definition, as opposed to what had made up the wonderful woman sitting in the booth across from Jane, stirring the ice around her water with a straw.

Jane saw Maura trying to hide the pain behind her smile, but years of reading people made it easy for her to see. Jane figured that having rich parents and choosing to go to boarding school at ten must have made for a very lonely childhood. She decided not to push the subject as she didn't think half a day was an appropriate amount of time to get to know someone before dredging up their painful past.

She smiled across the table at the emotional strength of the other woman and fleetingly noticed that they were both leaning into the table toward each other. She felt the seed of fondness for the other woman begin to grow in her stomach, and the familiar need to protect those she cared for took control of her body.

She reached a hand across the table, stopping Maura's obsessive stirring, and squeezed the ME's hand once before releasing her. Both women dropped their hands to the table and simply looked at each other, searching for a few seconds before Jane filled the silence the only way she knew how... With a joke.

"Did you hear about the robbery at the art museum here in Boston?" It took every ounce of self-control Jane had not to grin at Maura's immediate interest.

"No, you'd figure that would have at least made the news." Jane almost laughed at Maura then, at the woman's disbelief that the news would cross the museum in such a way, seemingly taking it as a personal slight.

"Yeah, but it's okay. The police caught them a couple of blocks down the road. When they were brought in for questioning the robbers just said 'We didn't have enough Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh.'" Jane grinned at Maura who sat across from her blinking as she processed this story. Her face moved from confusion to understanding to a genuine smile that met her eyes this time, and Maura chucked at Jane's horrible joke.

"Very clever, Jane." The tone in Maura's voice took Jane's breath away. She decided then to make Maura that happy at every opportunity she found. The food was brought to the table then, and it was as if a dam between the two women broke, making conversation able to flow freely between the two of them as they ate. Maura explained exactly why Jane shouldn't have been eating the greasy mess before her, and Jane teased Maura right back about the ME's 'rabbit food'.

Eventually, after they were both full, their lunch came to an end. Jane helped Maura into her coat and the pair made their way back to the precinct after a quick goodbye to Jane's cousins. Jane offered a quick wave and a "See ya later, Maur," and the ME smiled and nodded in return before they each stepped onto a separate elevator, taking the women in alternate directions.

* * *

Jane ambled back to the bullpen and grabbed the file off of Frosts desk before sitting down to go over it. She smiled at the meticulous way Maura had typed up her report and was happy to see that various lab results confirmed some of the theories that her team had come up with. They had probable cause, a suspect, and a BOLO in action, and now they had science on their side as well. This case was a classic open and shut, and it eased Jane of all of the anxiety she'd been experiencing when she thought of her first case back at work. She felt silly for ever questioning whether or not she'd be able to solve it. She was still grinning down at the paperwork when Korsak and Frost reentered and took their seats.

"Something funny in there, Jane?" Frost looked at her, amused and questioningly. "I've never seen anyone smile like that at reading lab results, no matter how much they help the case." His tone was teasing, but Jane wasn't bothered; she rarely cared what others thought of her.

"Nah, just had a good lunch." She smiled to her partner and tossed the file back where she found it. Frost opened it to the first page and looked at it as if it held the answers to life. She laughed at him. "Now who's eager to read?" She joked at him and he laughed at himself.

"Good lunch? The Doc must have accepted our invitation to drinks then... I'll call ahead to make sure they've got a booth for us all." Korsak made to start dialing into the phone on his desk, but Jane's face gave him pause. "That okay, Janie?"

"What? Yeah, of course." She ran her hand through her hair and then removed the jacket she was still wearing, suddenly warm. "It's just that I, I'm... I forgot to ask her..." She looked sheepishly over at Korsak who stared at her like she was one of their cases, and hung up the phone.

"You forgot to invite her? After giving us such a hard time about being nice to her?" Korsak looked over to Frost for support. "I can't believe it."

"You guys were gone for an hour, Jane, what the hell did you talk about?" His tone was more amused than Korsak's disbelieving one, but Jane found that she didn't want to share what her lunch with Maura had entailed. She was confused by her feelings. It wasn't like they had spoken about anything embarrassing, but Jane was compelled to hide her newfound acquaintanceship behind a screen of privacy.

"Oh, I don't know. The usual stuff." They were not convinced. "What did _you_ two talk about?" She attempted to get their attention away from her with her usual snarkiness.

"The case." They responded in unison as if it should have been obvious. Korsak continued alone.

"I'm surprised you even took lunch without me threatening to fire you if you didn't. Usually, you'd be harassing half the beat cops across Boston about the BOLO, and making sure they were harassing the half you didn't have time to get to." He chuckled at her and Frost smiled. "Any particular reason you wanted to get away?" The tone of Korsak's voice was slightly suggestive, and she hoped beyond hope that neither of the men saw the heat rush into her face.

"Yeah, Korsak, the particular reason was that I wanted to get away from the two of you clowns." She sassed back, causing Korsak to laugh and Frost to chuckle. "Same reason I'm leaving now." She said, standing up again and sauntering off.

"What? Where are you going?" Korsak asked, surprised. It wasn't Jane, but Frost who answered.

"Gonna go ask Maura out again?" His tone was joking, but Jane was glad neither of them saw the furious blush that was now covering her face. Jane gave the pair of them the finger over her shoulder as she strutted confidently off toward the elevators once again, leaving her colleagues laughing behind her.

She pressed the down button and wrung her hands together, stopping only when she thought back to her lunch when she'd grabbed Maura's hand again. She smiled at the aged calluses on her palm as she stepped onto the lift. They proved her work ethic was sound. She admired her own long fingers as she pressed the button that would take her to the basement, and didn't wince at the raised, pink bump that intruded on the back of her hand. She was pleased to be able to look at her hands without seeing them as purple, blood-covered weaknesses. The bones in her hand we're aching from the cold, but it was a welcomed distraction from the embarrassment she had to endure from her friends upstairs. She walked into Maura's open office door, knocking lightly before she continued wringing her hands together.

"Jane." Maura looked up from her laptop at her, surprised but seemingly happy, and Jane had to smile back at the pleasantness of Maura's tone. "I wasn't expecting to see you again today. I thought you'd be out doing that gumshoe thing." Jane laughed at Maura's use of the phrase. Of all the sayings the ME didn't seem to know, this one she'd heard before?

"That gumshoe thing?" Jane chuckled again and shook her head at Maura.

"Yes!" Maura seemed excited to continue. "Did you know that the phrase was originally a slang term for 'thief'? It only started being widely used to refer to Detectives by around 1908, but the term stuck." Maura continued through Jane's laugh at her seemingly accidental pun. "Shoe soles made in the late 1800's were made of gum, so the phrase 'to gumshoe' came about, meaning to sneak quietly as if wearing gumshoe! The rest is history." Maura finished with a wave and looked expectantly at Jane, who bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at Maura's adorable outburst of knowledge.

_Adorable?_ Jane thought. _Well, I suppose it is._ Jane did what she always did when her emotions didn't make sense to her; relied on her advanced sarcasm.

"Absolutely riveting, Pointdexter." Jane laughed and was pleased to see that Maura seemed to be aware that she hadn't meant it as an insult. The smile slipped a little from Jane's face as she sat on one of the chairs across from Maura. She ran a hand through her hair again and continued to wring them together. She was nervous. "Actually, the guys-Korsak and Frost that is- were wondering if you wanted to come to get drinks with us after work? They want to apologize for being a couple of shitheads." Jane noticed Mauras eyes squint slightly at the curse. "A couple of jerks?" She corrected herself, and Maura laughed lightly, glancing down at the Detectives' moving hands. Maura got up out of her seat to move around her desk and sit in the chair next to Jane.

"They must be quite painful." Maura pointed to Jane's hands with her own without looking down at them. "I can try to help if you'd like?" The kindness in Maura's eyes washed all of Jane's nerves away. She stopped wringing her hands and stared down at them.

"I don't usually... I haven't felt comfortable with people touching them." She admitted, surprising Maura and herself. "I didn't even want anyone looking at them at first. It made me..." Jane shook her head and couldn't continue, so she gazed over at Maura as if she would be able to supply the right words. The ME did not disappoint.

"I don't have to look at them to help you." She spoke softly, barely above a whisper, and Jane turned in her seat to slowly offer her hands over to the Doctor, maintaining eye contact to be sure Maura kept her promise.

Maura gazed back into Jane's face as she used her peripheral vision to locate one of the Detectives hands, her sure fingers set to work right away. Jane sighed as Maura eased the pain and tension out of her left hand. It took a couple of minutes, but Maura was steadfast in her unwillingness to look down as she worked the soreness from Jane's bones. Jane then felt comfortable enough to look down to see what Maura was doing as she finished with the left hand and moved over to Jane's right.

The ME was going through the motions of the later stages of Jane's physical therapy, but this Doctor was infinitely more gentle than her old one and seemed to be taking her time to make sure all the pain had been abated before moving to the next step. Jane glanced back up into Mauras face and saw that the ME had closed her eyes, concentration for the task at hand plain on her face. Jane took the opportunity to study her new friends' features. The slight crease in between her focused eyebrows, how she bit her bottom lip and held her mouth more to one side in concentration. She thought Maura had the softest looking skin she'd ever seen. Jane stopped her assessment only then when she realized what a strange thought that was to have about a friend. Before she could put much thought into it, they were interrupted.

"Dr. Isles, there's been a small pile up on the- oh. Sorry, should I come back later?" Susie Chang appeared in the doorway, and Jane yanked her hand free of Maura's with an accusatory glare at Susie; thus beginning the Senior Criminalist's fear of the Detective. Maura, graceful as ever, simply stood and addressed her colleague.

"No, you're fine Susie, thank you. Please go wait at the bay doors to receive the bodies." The criminalist followed the order immediately and Maura smiled, satisfied. "It looks like I'll be busy for the next few hours at least. What time do you usually meet up for drinks?" Maura asked Jane, who was beginning to get really annoyed at the amount of blushing she'd been doing that day, but was glad that Maura didn't feel the need to talk about their hand-holding. Not that it was actual hand-holding, but still.

"About eight usually. You know where The Robber is?" Maura nodded. "Cool, here, put your number in my phone and I'll text you later to see if you're free." Jane swiped to the right app and handed her cell over to the Doctor, who took it and began to enter her details with an amused smile.

"Here." Maura made the screen go black before she handed the phone back to Jane. "It shouldn't take me that long to process our new arrivals if I get started now." She ushered Jane out of her office. She closed the door behind them, bumping into Jane slightly as she did so, noting the growing redness on the Detective's face. "I'll see you later, Jane." Maura smiled and turned to head in Susie's direction.

"Later," Jane mumbled as she pressed the up button to call the lift. She thought of Maura's amused face as she'd entered details into her phone, and checked the cell to see what had been so funny. Jane unlocked her phone and scrolled through her contacts to the 'M' section. She frowned slightly when she found that Maura's name wasn't there. 'I' for Isles was blank as well. She rolled her eyes as she scrolled up to see if Maura had used her 'Doctor' title instead of her name, but she was no less confused when Maura wasn't listed there either.

She used the ride up to her floor to scroll through the long list of contacts in her phone. The elevator doors opened with a ding as Jane's eyes finally landed on the new entry she was searching for. She laughed out loud before closing her phone and walking off of the elevator, amused at her friend's subtlety. She shook her head at Maura's full acceptance of her new alias; Pointdexter.

* * *

**I hope I'm heading in the right direction with this. More fluff soon! x**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm going to start picking the pace up a bit now that the world has been established and we're introduced to my version of the characters. :) I really appreciate the feedback I've received so far, so special shoutout to those of you who have reviewed! And thanks to the readers! **

* * *

As Jane made her way once again to the bullpen, she braced herself for the taunting she was sure she would receive from Frost and Korsak, but it didn't come. Instead, she got the news that only served to put her in an even better mood. She walked into the bullpen to see Frost listening to Korsak's half of a serious phone call. He hung up as Jane sat at her desk, success written all over his aging face.

"We got him, Janie. Frankie's bringing him in now, we got him." Korsak looked down at Frost and back up at Jane. "You two wanna do the interview when he gets here, or let him stew for a bit?" Frost looked over at Jane who looked back, they smiled at each other and Frost seemed to read her mind before he responded to their Team Leader.

"Definitely let him stew." Almost every Detective who was worth their badge would agree that the longer a guilty perp sat, the more likely they were to confess. They all understood that fact and none of them had a problem with leaving murderers alone in the cold room, staring at their reflection in the two-way mirror, chained to the desk. Hope that their lawyers could help them slowly draining from their minds. "I know we just had lunch a half hour ago but," Frost shrugged and looked down to fix his tie. "Anybody up for a coffee break?"

The group decided to go fix themselves quick coffee in the break room before heading back to their desks to get all of the necessary paperwork ready. Jane would do as thorough a job as she could on the current case, making sure all her paperwork was in order while the perp waited on her to complete it. The guys were pleased with the opportunity to catch up on the desk work they had been neglecting, and they thanked her.

Three hours of paper-pushing later, Jane and Frost were ready to get a confession, both equally confident that they would be successful.

Jane walked into the interrogation room first and knew immediately that it would be easy to break the worm of a man before her. He was immediately chatty; the chatty were always eager to spill. The quiet ones were where the real work was.

"Dayum, if I'da knew you were gonna be the officer questioning me I'da got arrested a _long_ time ago." The man sneered at Jane, who was glad to notice that although Frost was displeased at the outburst, he did not come to her defense; it showed a high level of self-control and tolerance. Two traits that helped to make Detectives great.

"Yeah, and if I had known I had to see you today, Jason, I would have stayed home," Jane responded easily and sat across from the man making the most direct eye contact that she could; he kept trying to glare at her but would look down or at Frost every once in a while.

"So, Jason. Your girl broke up with you because you couldn't keep a job, so you mess her up a bit, huh?" Frost entered the conversation smoothly. "Only you didn't expect her to threaten to tell this time." Jane saw the subtle shock on Jason's face, and felt pride for her new partners' abilities, despite his newness. "Oh yes, we know all about the history of her abuse, and we've got the proof to back it up in court. You'll be put away for a long time for it." Jason looked shaken up a bit but it wasn't quite enough to break him. He kept his eyes on Jane, ignoring Frost. Jane remembered his patience from the crime scene. _Guess he can only keep his cool if he's murdering his ex-girlfriend. _Jane thought to herself bitterly. She kept her cool, letting no emotions show.

"Oh, that's nothing compared to what I'd like to you, baby. Why don't you let me out of these cuffs and we'll put them to better use." His sly smile and his threat of confining Jane's hands made her incredibly uncomfortable. All of a sudden, she saw Charles Hoyt sitting across from her, and the muscles in her back flexed instinctively, which Frost seemed to notice. He pushed off of the wall he had been leaning against to walk around the desk and put his hand menacingly on Jason's shoulder before leaning in and rumbling lowly.

"Answer. The question." But Jason smiled back to Jane to continue to tell her exactly what he would like to do if she'd been the one in the handcuffs. Jane noticed Frosts resolve beginning to fail but did nothing to stop it. She knew that threatening the weasel before her would do the trick, so she let her ner partner shout. She'd talk to him about it later. "That's enough you son of a bitch, that's enough!" Frost threw the file he'd been holding onto the desk in front of Jason, and several pictures of Katie's corpse spilled over onto the desk. Jason gasped in horror. He'd been the one to strangle his ex-girlfriend, but to see her eyes glazed over, and the dark bruises on the now pale skin turned his stomach. Her dead eyes stared up at him from the shiny autopsy table, and he had to swallow the vomit rising in his throat. He didn't think he'd ever see how much blood he'd spilled again, sure his mind had tricked him into seeing more than there was. Jane saw the confession on the tip of his tongue and knew it was time to strike.

"We've got your prints on the body, the murder weapon, and on the several tools you used to torture Katie." Jane was surprised to see a single tear fall out of the man's eye. "We have your scroll of an abuse record, and proof that you killed her, with a motive for why you did it. The only thing that can help you at all right now is your confession. It won't keep you from prison, of course, but it'll help get you into a nicer one... One with private showers maybe? You're not the only man who likes to see a pretty, new face in handcuffs." Jane knew he understood what she was suggesting, and his face paled as he stared at her. She knew the stereotype was generally false, but the men of the public sure seemed to believe otherwise. It was a handy tool she occasionally used to her benefit.

"Okay, okay! Alright! I did it, okay? I killed her! She fucking broke up with me after I wasted six years of my life on that stupid bitch and I wasn't just gonna let her walk away from me. She's all I have! She's all I had..." He glared angrily at Jane before looking down at the table, momentarily forgetting about the photos there and closing his eyes tightly to block them. He continued in a calmer voice. "She's all I had. I couldn't just let her leave me."

"She's left everyone now," Jane replied to him in disgust as she stood up and opened the door to two officers waiting to process him. "Book him." They nodded to her and Frost followed her out of the room. Once they were out of sight she clapped him on the back. "Nice going in there, Partner." She smiled sideways at him, and he grinned back. "We gotta work on that temper though." Jane tried to laugh it off with Frost but he got serious with her instead.

"Jane, listen... I couldn't just let him talk to you like that." She wanted to tell him that she could take care of herself, but he waved off her reply, seeming to know what she was about to say. "Yeah, yeah, I know you don't need it, all the power to you." He made a fist in the air next to his head which got a fast grin out of Jane before she sobered again. "It's just... I had to read your file, okay? The Captain made me read it before I agreed to be your partner, and I know how good you are at taking care of yourself, your stats are above everyone else here. I know you don't need anyone standing up for you, but Jane... I didn't freak out on him because you're a woman... I freaked out on him because you're my partner now, and I'm gonna do everything I can to have your back." She smiled at the genuine way he spoke to her and knew he was being truthful.

Jane wasn't ashamed to let Frost see the tears forming in her eyes but she didn't let them fall. She didn't trust her voice enough to respond verbally yet, and Frost read that in her face, extending a hand toward her. Jane looked down at Frost's hand, as she had when they first met only hours ago, but she ignored it completely this time, embracing her new partner in a quick hug with another couple of claps on the back. Frost stood shell-shocked. In all the talk about Jane Rizzoli, never once did anyone mention that she might hug anybody. She cleared her throat and straightened the lapels of her blazer.

"You tell anybody I hugged you and I'll kick your ass, Frost, I mean it." She glared at him fully, but Frost knew what she meant, so he lifted his hand and pretended to zip his mouth and throw away the key. She patted his shoulder once more and turned to lead the way to their desks. "Let's get that bastard's case closed so we can grab those drinks at The Robber, huh?"

"Whatever you say, Partner." Frost smiled after her. "Whatever you say."

* * *

Maura stood in her office stretching out her sore muscles and focusing on bringing circulation back into her extremities. As much as she loved speaking for the people who had died of violent crimes, she had to admit that processing several corpses in a row took a toll on her own body. She thought about whether it would be acceptable for her to bring some of her yoga equipment to work for occasions like this one, but she was interrupted by the familiar beep of her cellphone. She had a text message and didn't bother trying to hide the smile that planted itself firmly on her lips. She checked her watch: 7:37 PM. Right on time. She picked up her phone and let her fingerprint unlock the screen. Her smile stayed on her face as she read the text,

**Hey Pointdexter (very funny BTW). We're headed over to the bar now. You still in or are your customers keeping you busy? -J**

Maura chuckled lightly at Jane calling the newest arrivals to her autopsy tables 'customers' because the definition wasn't incredibly far off. She was providing them a service after all. She didn't have to think long before she decided on a reply.

**Hello again, Gumshoe Gal, I'll head over shortly, I just need to finish up a couple of things. -M/P?**

She jumped a little as a reply came back almost immediately.

**Can't wait, see you soon. -J**

Maura placed the phone in her bag and jumped once more at the sudden voice filling the room.

"I've only ever seen people smile at their phones like that for one reason. You got a hot date, Doctor Isles?" Susie Chang stopped by to say goodnight to Maura; a frequent ritual that the two women shared. Maura wouldn't exactly call it friendship so much as admiration or professional interest though, so she rarely led her Senior Criminalist to believe that the relationship would grow.

"Something like that," Maura stated simply, smiling at her colleague. She supposed it was a sort of date. A work date maybe, or a cordial gathering of work acquaintances. She wasn't quite sure what it was and so she felt her answer to Susie existed in the realm of the truth, where she exclusively pulled her words from.

"Lucky guy... Or gal." Susie chuckled easily and waved to her boss as she walked out of the workplace. Maura decided that she liked Susie then, and thought that perhaps she might try to have non-work-related conversations with her more often.

She finished up her routine stretches and changed out of her scrubs, into the red dress she had worn that day, easing the charcoal blazer over top. They fit her form well and she knew it. She felt her confidence raise slightly, along with her height, as she eased her feet into the charcoal heels she had selected that day, and smiled at the familiarity of the feeling. She'd always enjoyed the clacking her shoes made against the floor as she strutted about. She made sure that everything in the morgue was locked away properly before moving back to her office to grab her coat and bag; locking up for the night. She waved to the security officer manning the desk on the way out of the main door and headed across the street towards the bar.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jane was standing in the cluster of desks she worked at, ready to leave and waiting on her team to be as ready to go as she was. She shot a text to Maura and grinned at the response she'd received, immediately regretting the action; it was not missed by her friends.

"Got a new man texting you, Janie?" Korsak poked.

"Oh, what makes you so sure it's a _man_, Korsak?" Frost asked the older person, striking a pose that oddly resembled the ME exceptionally well. The pair of men broke out into laughter at Jane's look of utter disbelief.

"Would the both of you_ please_ shut up?" Jane snarked to cover her embarrassment. "We're not gonna get a good booth if you aren't ready in the next ten seconds." This sobered the men up and they promptly finished up their tasks to follow Jane out of the building to The Dirty Robber.

The three Detectives were pleased to see that the bar owner had saved them their usual booth. Jane and Korsak headed over to officially claim the table as Frost went to the bar to get drinks for the group, handing his jacket to Korsak before he separated from the gang. Jane laughed at Frosts actions and led her old partner to the booth, hanging up her own coat and glancing over to the door they just walked through.

"You seem nervous, Janie." She shot the older man a signature warning look, but he decided to press on. "I'm not making fun of you, Rizzoli, I'm just worried. You doing okay?" She slouched back against the cushion of the booth and decided to ease up on her old partner. He cared about her, and she felt bad about going behind his back to request a new partner after he'd found her pinned to the floor of Hoyt's basement four months ago.

"Yeah, Vince, I'm alright." She smiled at him, and he knew she was being genuine by her use of his first name. "It's not what you're thinking, I'm just..." _Nervous to hang out with Maura? I can't say that!_ The way she was talking made Korsak aware that he ought to drop the subject if he wanted her to stay in the bar, so he just nodded and smiled, at ease for now. Frost got back with a beer for each of them, followed by Frankie, who held a basket of fries for the table. Jane laughed at the deep-fried potatoes and the men looked up at her like she'd grown a second head.

"Yep. She's_ finally_ cracked." Frankie said to Frost. The pair shared a mischievous grin, prompting Jane to give a swift smack to the back of Frankie's head. "Hey! I'm gonna tell Ma!" He threatened her, Jane stuck her tongue out at him in return. She really did love her brother. "Why are you laughing at the fries anyway?" He asked her, rubbing the back of his head as she stood to let him into the booth before getting settled herself once more.

"I was just thinking about what Maura's gonna say about them." Jane looked up at the guys and expected them to start laughing along with her, but she only got polite smiles from her teammates, and Frankie's face disfigured itself in its confusion.

"You mean Doctor Isles? Why would she have anything to say about them? She never even comes here." Frankie explained to his sister as if she were the younger sibling, not the other way around. Before she could retort, Frost cut her off.

"Jane invited her today! She said that Doctor Isles is _sweet_." Frost grinned at Frankie, batting his lashes, and to Frost's utter astonishment, he received his own smack from Jane. Now, _this_ was the Detective Rizzoli people had been telling him about for the last four months.

"When did I say that? I don't remember saying that!" Jane defended herself as she glanced at the door again, eliciting another laugh from Frost. "I think I would have remembered saying that." Korsak decided that he'd been silent for long enough.

"I think it was right after you said she was nice, but before you called us a couple of assholes if I'm remembering correctly. Then you made her cry." He supplied smartly, to Janes frustration.

"Aw Jane, you made her cry?" Frankie chided his sister.

"I did _not_ make her cry, _you guys_ probably made her cry with your terrible jokes and bad attitudes." Jane pointed before she crossed her arms in annoyance as the group laughed at her, and she looked over to the door again to see a flash of blonde hair and a thigh-length red coat. "Shut up about it, she's here!" The group turned to see the ME shrugging out of her fall coat at the door, scanning the room until she locked eyes with Jane's, the pair of women smiled at each other.

* * *

Maura advanced toward the almost full booth and was relieved to feel the anxiety she'd built up on the way over ease out of her body almost completely as she gazed at Jane from across the room. Her smile widened as Jane quickly stood out of her seat to take Maura's coat, hanging it on the now full hooks designated to their table. Maura looked questioningly to the rest of the table, as the men snickered at Jane's actions (which the Detective valiantly ignored).

"Good evening, Detectives, it's nice to see you both again." Maura nodded and smiled at both Frost and Korsak before her eyes rested on Frankie. "Your ethmoid and lacrimal bones are strikingly similar to Jane's, though your zygomatic is a little less defined." She informed the man who she had seen a few times around the precinct, having overheard that he was Jane's younger brother. He smiled confusedly at her before looking to Jane for direction.

"She says you're not as good looking as I am." Jane supplied to her brother, eliciting a hearty laugh from the other two men in the booth. Maura decided not to correct Jane's translation. She had only meant to say that Frankie looked like his sister.

"Yeah, well _someone's_ gotta be the smart one in the family, and I got the brawn too." Frankie defended his own honor, but Korsak backed Jane.

"I don't know Rizzoli _Junior,_ I haven't seen you break a chair over a crazed meth head's back yet." The group turned to look at Jane as she and Maura got settled next to each other, a little squished together due to sharing their side of the booth with Frankie.

"C'mon Korsak, that was one time." Jane tried to play it cool but got a stern look from the older man. "Alright, twice." She admitted to the rest of the group, who laughed at her. She glanced down at the table, slightly uncomfortable with the attention, and she remembered the basket of fries. She reached over to grab one and popped it in her mouth, raising an eyebrow at the men in the group as if she'd just proved a point. Maura, once again, did not let her down.

"You know Jane, you probably shouldn't eat those after what you had for lunch." Maura was surprised to see Jane smile at her warning as if it were a treasure. "The oil that they are deep-fried in make them very high in fat and calories, which can pose a number of serious health risks if consumed regularly. French fries also contain a lot of salt and acrylamide, which is a chemical that has been associated with cancer." Maura was surprised when the table burst out laughing at her warning to her new friend. Jane looked down at Maura, laughing along with her colleagues and Maura felt a smile grow on her own face.

"See?" Jane asked the guys, "what'd I tell you?" She turned her attention back to Maura. "I think the keywords I heard there were '_if_ consumed regularly..._ If!_ How many times, in all the time that we've known each other have you seen me eat fries?" She questioned Maura like she'd question a perp, but Maura saw the amusement in the Detectives eyes. Maura stubbornly stared back at Jane taking her time answering.

"...Twice." She admitted. "But Jane, we've only known each other for less than twenty-four hour-" Jane held up a hand and spoke over her.

"Not relevant!" She insisted, and table chuckled at the two women once more, before Frankie chimed in.

"Nah, you know what? I think Maura's got to have the Brains title, not me." He smiled over at her, and she felt her cheeks flush. He looked very much like Jane. Frost joined in before anyone noticed the colour in her face though.

"No way, did you see her coat? That's Armani, my friend, and look at her hair, man! She gets the Beauty title for sure." Frost lifted his beer bottle to Maura's jacket before taking a swig. Maura, ever proud of the routines she kept to keep her body in shape tried to prove both men wrong, even though she was flattered.

"I think I should fit into the Brawns category; I go for a run three times a week. I literally just finished doing yoga before I headed over here." She looked in between the faces of the people at her booth, who took a moment to register her words before they looked over to Jane, who was chuckling at Maura and they followed suit. They thought Maura was funny. She smiled, pleased with herself.

"Well, looks like you beat us all, Maur." Jane grinned at her new friend. "Now I think these guys have something to say to you?" Jane looked back to her partner and leader as if she'd asked them a question and was waiting patiently for their answer. Korsak was the first to swallow his pride and break the tension.

"Well, as you heard Jane so eloquently put it, Frost and I have been kind of a couple of... well..."

"Assholes." Frost supplied for the older man.

"Yes, and I -_ we_ \- wanted to say how sorry we are for it." Korsak smiled with half of his mouth, his apology was written on his face. Frost continued their groveling.

"Yeah, we think you're great Doctor Isles, really! Jane's right, you are nice... And_ funny_ too!" He tilted his bottle towards her. "I never had the displeasure of working with Doctor Pike, but I've been nothing but impressed working with you the past few months." Frost smiled at Maura who smiled happily at the pair of men before everyone looked over at Frankie who had been distracted by the french fries and whatever ball game was replaying on the television.

"What?" He asked, swallowing a fry. "Why are you looking at me, _I've_ never been mean to her." Frankie defended.

"I believe I overheard you and Frost wondering if they built special cameras into my 'cyborg' eyes before they released me into the world of crime-solving because you thought that had to be the only way I was able to attain so much evidence from the crime scenes." Maura supplied to Frankie, who looked both stunned and ashamed. "Don't worry, Frankie, I actually took that particular musing as a compliment." She smiled at him and he chuckled back, shaking his head and reaching for more food, causing the rest of the table to laugh again.

Conversation flowed easily for the rest of the night. Jane was glad to see that Maura was opening up to her work friends and was even more pleased to see that the guys genuinely seemed to be growing fond of her. She leaned back in the booth once again and rested her arms on the top of it, holding one arm on the wood above Frankie's shoulders and one above Maura's. She listened to her new friend banter with the group as Frost got up to bring her over her requested glass of wine. Jane sighed happily, stealing glances at Maura when she thought nobody would notice. She could definitely do this again.

* * *

**There's a special place in my heart for Jane and Frankie's relationship. 3 It's probably because I have a little brother that I'm close to, but I've always enjoyed the thought of writing Frankie. Anyway, more fluff coming at you soon! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, I'm going to give the first half of this chapter a little trigger warning because I go into detail about what happened to Jane in Hoyt's basement. I'm not incredibly graphic but I can see how people might be uncomfortable reading about sexual abuse and necrophilia. Again, I don't go into a lot of detail but if you'd prefer to just imagine, you can skit the large italicized portion of this chapter. **

**It's all fluff after the nightmare though, so I make up for the darkness with CUTE! **

* * *

After the gang said their goodnights and headed their separate ways, Jane went home to shower and get into her usual sweatpants and tank top combo. She crawled into her bed and curled under her blankets with a content sigh. She had a very good first day back. Jane had hoped that with being awake for almost twenty-four hours, she'd be able to get more than a couple of hours of sleep, especially because she was in such a good mood. She was wrong.

Jane woke in a cold sweat, and her hands trembled as they balled into fists in her hair. It took her a couple of minutes to realize that she'd only been dreaming about being in Hoyt's basement, and she had to work to stop the tears from continuing to fall as she came back to reality. She tried to take a deep breath, but her chest shook with the inhalation and another sob escaped her as she exhaled. She was embarrassed at her weakness.

She angrily used the back of her arm to wipe the tears from her face, a habit she'd formed when her hands were in casts. She threw the comforter off of herself. Her sheets were soaked with sweat so she left the bed and headed to the washroom to grab a couple of towels. She laid one down on the sheet and used the other as a makeshift blanket after drying herself off. She laid, curled into herself, thinking about her nightmare.

* * *

_Jane walked into the basement of Charles Hoyt's house and saw their missing woman tied on a mattress before her. She held up her gun with steady fists and continued into the room. It seemed clear. The woman was gagged and bound, and Jane headed toward her to free her mouth; the woman seemed to need to tell Jane something. Jane took a few steps into the room before she experienced a sharp pain to the back of her head. Everything had gone dark._

_She wasn't sure how much time had passed while she was unconscious, but the woman on the bed was conscious enough to be screaming through her gag, so it either wasn't very long, or enough time had passed for the woman to have gained more energy._

_Jane became aware of an incredible pain in her left hand, and a weight on top of her torso. Her head spun as she looked from the woman across from her and into the icy blue eyes if the man who had been tormenting her for the last few weeks._

_"Jane." He'd drawn the first vowel of her name out softly, and his rancid breath caressed her face. "So nice of you to join us." Jane felt him roll his hips into her body and stiffened before she realized that they were both clothed. Charles Hoyt chuckled at her and help up a scalpel. It glinted in the dim light of the basement, and she saw the man glance toward her left hand. She followed his line of sight and saw that her hand was pierced to the ground with a matching scalpel. Her eyes widened and she cried out in pain when she tried to free herself. The pain the act elicited made it impossible to free the hand without causing more damage._

_She made to use her right hand to rip the medical tool from her left, but Hoyt laughed again as he grabbed her wrist and forced her palm to the ground beside her head._

_"No-no, Jane. I've got plans for you. I've been waiting for so long." He smiled at her as she watched him lower the tool to her face, tracing it lightly against her cheek and neck, down her clavicle and across her shoulder, before he jerked his arm up suddenly and pierced the scalpel through her right palm as well. Her scream matched that of the other woman's, but they were not loud enough to drown out the sound of Hoyt's maniacal laughter._

_Jane was trapped. The pain shooting up and down the nerves of her arms had rendered them useless, and she accepted what was about to happen to her as Charles leaned into her neck to inhale deeply. He let out the breath slowly, apparently in awe of her scent._

_"You smell like lavender and fear." He husked into her ear with another jerk of his hips. Jane tensed again and experienced only a hint of relief when Hoyt backed up off of her to stand at her feet. Her relief did not last long. "Now Jane, you came here all by yourself to save Karenna here, but you failed to realize that I planned it that way." He smiled at the shock on her face. Korsak hadn't followed her there and she wasn't sure that her dispatch had gone through. "Yes, that's right, I win. You're going to watch as I have my way with lovely Karenna, just as her husband watched before I slit his throat. Your final thoughts will be of how you failed. You failed to save her from me, Jane... I'd like to make sure you see that before you die." Charles smiled down at her once more before he unbuttoned his shirt and walked over to the gagged woman, who let her tears fall freely as she wailed and tried, unsuccessfully, to get away from him._

_Charles back-handed Karenna hard across the face before using the heel of his shoe to force her back onto the dirty mattress. Jane watched in abject horror, unable to do anything to stop the man from his advances. Tears flowed down Jane's face. Her eyes got more and more swollen from crying as Charles Hoyt tortured the woman in front of Jane, eventually killing her and continuing on with the corpse. Jane was frozen in place as she watched Hoyt finally cease. He eventually walked back over to her but exhaustion took over her mind. The last thing she saw before succumbing to sleep was Hoyt's smile; he knew she would dream only about what she'd just been forced to witness._

_"You're next, Janie." She had heard as the world went dark once more._

_She was surprised to awaken hours later to see Korsak bursting through the door after Charles approached her again. Charles only had the opportunity to kneel over Jane and unbutton her shirt to fondle her chest before Korsak released two bullets to Hoyt's shoulder._

_"I'm here, Janie. You okay?" Korsak had asked her. She could only wail in response. She was safe, but she didn't feel like it. She couldn't find the voice to tell him to go away, to say that she didn't want her partner to see her like that, no matter how thankful she was that he'd found her. She couldn't tell him how she thought he'd never be able to trust her to have his back again after seeing her so broken. She clung to his chest, wailing as he freed her from the ground, letting him see her the most broken she had ever been as he led her to the ambulance._

* * *

Jane knew that she wouldn't be getting any more sleep that night, so she reached for her cellphone. She unplugged it from its charger to check the time. 3:47 AM.

It was basically four, just an hour before her alarm was set to go off. She decided to start her morning routine then, instead of lying in bed, analyzing her dreams further. She stripped her bed and herself down, throwing everything into her laundry basket before changing into her workout clothes. She needed to run.

She thought back to the night before when Maura claimed to also enjoy the hobby of jogging and wondered if it was too early to text the ME. She checked her phone again. 4:13. She decided to risk it. She hid her nerves well behind the usual screen of sarcasm.

**Good morning, Doctor. I'm going to work off my french fries with a run. Care to join? -J**

Jane headed to the washroom again to try to contain her wild mess of curls in a ponytail. She attempted to drag her brush through her unruly mane but the handle snapped off of it, the head of the brush sticking in her hair. _Great._ She rolled her eyes at her reflection, doing what she could with the useful end of the brush before throwing it in the trash. She sighed when she was done. She looked like a maniac. The circles under her eyes were so blue that it almost looked like she'd been punched, and she could only do so much to tame her hair with her fingers. The familiar sound of her phone lifted her spirits.

**Yes. Would you like to meet up at Boston Commons or would you like me to pick you up? -M**

Jane smiled at her phone before looking around her mess of an apartment. No way was she letting Maura know she lived in such a state.

**Definitely meet there. When works for you? -J**

Jane was amped up and didn't particularly feel like waiting, so she was pleased with Maura's reply.

**On my way. -M**

Jane smiled down at her phone before pulling on her running shoes and grabbing her keys. She locked up and headed down to her car; thoughts of what had woken her gone from her mind for the moment.

Jane pulled into a parking space next to Maura's car, which she'd remembered from the crime scene. Jane shook her head at herself, remembering how she'd judged the ME for pulling up to the crime scene in such a flashy vehicle, but now smiled at it. It was just something that made sense for Maura to do. Jane grinned and waved at the ME through their windows before they both got out of their vehicles.

"What woke you up so early? I hope it wasn't me." Jane shot over to the ME who smiled.

"No, my circadian rhythm woke me." Maura offered simply, with no further explanation. "I could ask you the same thing, Detective." Maura intended a joke but noticed fear flash quickly over Jane's face before the brunette covered the reaction with a chuckle.

"My circus beans rhythm." Jane threw back before looking over Maura's work out attire. The doctor's long sleeve workout shirt hugged her body just as much as her dress had the day prior, and Jane purposely avoided looking at Maura's sizeable breasts. She felt her stomach tighten as her eyes made their way down Maura's body, intaking how her spandex pants flaunted the toned muscles in the legs of the smaller woman. The gazing was not lost on Maura, who found she liked when Jane looked at her. Jane was starting to feel a familiar stir in the pit of her stomach, but it ceased immediately when her eyes landed on Maura's feet. She pointed to the... Shoes? "What the hell are _those?_" Jane looked at the footwear as if they had crossed her. Maura was aghast.

"Jane, several reviews indicate that these shoes offer lightweight performance enhancement, have a thick enough sole to keep one's feet protected, while still supplying the natural benefits of running barefoot. I simply wanted to try them out." She explained to Jane, who was so_ not_ on board.

"Yeah, but at what cost, Maura?" Jane joked with her new friend. "Your shoes have_ toes!"_ Maura shook her head in playful annoyance before her eyes quickly assessed Jane's running attire.

"Are you aware that over time, your running shoes lose their cushioning for shock-absorption, so when you run in worn-out shoes, it increases the stress and impact on your legs and joints, which can cause overuse injuries as well as general aches and pains?" Maura pointedly glanced at Jane's beat-up pair of runners, but Jane ignored Maura, focusing on how her heart rate had increased once more as Maura's eyes had looked over her body. The detective thought her heightened heart rate might have been caused by the lingering fear from the nightmare, so she shook her head with a 'whatever' and started to stretch. Maura did the same and laughed as Jane took off down one of the paths without another word.

The pair of them ran until the sun started making its way up to the horizon and Jane was covered once more in a sheen of sweat. She slowed to a stop, and to Maura's dismay, laid down in the grass without cooling down or stretching. Maura stood above the detective, questioning her actions.

"You know," she began, "it's important to stretch after a long run to ensure that your-"

"Yeah, Maur. I know." Jane's tone stopped Maura's words in their tracks. She looked down into Jane's face and at the sweat that was shining on the detectives heaving chest. She read fear. Jane had awoken very early in the morning after having been up for nearly a day and was now showing signs of fear. Maura got something then that she had never expected to get in her life; she got a hunch.

"Jane..." Maura kneeled in the grass next to Jane as she began, slowing her own breathing down before she lay next to her friend to continue. She turned her head to study Jane's face. "Did you sleep yet?" Jane inhaled deeply and let the breath out slowly. Maura did the same thing during yoga so she recognized the calming technique.

"Yeah." Jane supplied simply. Maura pressed on.

"But not very well." The Doctor stated it as the fact she knew it was. It would explain the hollow look on her friend's face, and the blue hue below her eyes.

_People with PTSD often suffer horrible nightmares,_ Maura thought as she studied the Detective. Jane turned her head to look Maura in the face.

"No," Jane admitted. "...Not very well." Maura was surprised at her body's decision to move before she could think about her actions. She reached her hand out and gently laced her fingers with Jane's own. Jane gasped just enough to be heard, and her cheeks flushed adorably. Maura did not begin to massage Jane's hand, she just laid next to the Detective, looking away from her face and into the sky as the stars disappeared in the light of the rising sun. The pair of women laid together as the grass surrounding them warmed, Maura, looking into the sky and Jane looking at Maura. Their heart rates returned to normal slowly. Maura's alarm sounded from her watch and she reluctantly removed her hand from Jane's with a gentle squeeze, silencing the beeps. She stretched her arms and turned back to Jane, who was staring up into her face.

"Time for coffee?" Maura asked, and Jane was thankful to Maura for once again not talking about the innocent intimacy the two of them had shared. She grinned up at the Doctor with a nod.

"Always." She agreed with a laugh, and she stood to help Maura to her feet (which were quite blistered from the ugly shoes). The women made their way back to their vehicles and agreed to go home and get ready for work before meeting up at the precinct to have coffee and breakfast. There was a small cafe on the first floor of the precinct that they both liked. Maura was quite sure she had never had such a good start to her day.

* * *

On her way home, Maura thought about how she had never had a friendship like this one before. Well, she'd never had a friendship before so her frame of reference was very limited, but she was sure that the dynamic between her and Jane went above and beyond the norm. This pleased Maura greatly because she liked to be very good at things. She wanted to be an excellent friend to Jane; the best, in fact. She wanted to be Jane's best friend.

Likewise, Jane found herself changing her clothes at home and wondering if she's been missing out on female friendships throughout her life. She's never really gotten close with any of the girls from school so most of her friends had been male. Once she was at the Academy, the few friendships she did make were limited to her class, in which she was the only female; though there were other women in other classes. She was starting to place a high value on her budding relationship with Maura and thought the other woman was deserving of as much kindness as Jane could supply. Jane thought Maura seemed to have lacked kindness and amusement in her life and was happy to make a fool out of herself trying to supply it now. She wanted to hear Maura laugh as much as possible. Jane thought Maura's laugh was like music and the beauty of the ME's smile was rivaled only by the shimmering of her green eyes when she was looking at Jane. The Detective smiled to herself and she headed back out of her apartment to meet up with Maura once more. She didn't consider that her feelings towards Maura might be anything more than fast friendship. Not yet.

Jane found Maura in the doors of the precinct making idle chat with the security guard. Maura was informing the man of a new sensor system that was being implemented across Canada, so Jane decided to swoop in and save the poor man.

"Maura, I'm _starving_! I'm sure Andy will be happy to hear about Canada tomorrow, _Right?_" She looked at the man who nodded. They both knew he was going to be on vacation starting the following day, but neither informed the Doctor.

"Yes, alright." Maura agreed, smiling and waving at the man. "Goodbye, Andrew." The man waved back and sent a thankful look to Jane.

"See ya later, ladies." Jane knew that she shouldn't have fibbed to the ME, but she also knew that Andy had been having a particularly loud time at home, as he and his husband had just adopted twins. He deserved some quiet time, Jane rationalized to herself. She'd make up for it with breakfast.

The pair of women entered the cafe, which was slowly filling with workers and guests alike. Jane rolled her eyes when she spotted Stanley working behind the counter. He was a grouch if there ever was one.

"Do you know what you want?" Jane looked down at Maura, who nodded and smiled up at her. "Cool, I'm buying." Maura made to protest but Jane just said that she could get it the next time.

They waited in the short queue until Stanley called them to approach. Maura placed her order first and everything was going smoothly until Jane was done informing Stanley of what she wanted.

"That's a pretty long list there _Rizzoli,_ you sure you can afford it this time?" He had no hint of a joke on his features, and he looked at Jane as if she were a cockroach.

"Can it, Stanley." Jane shot back, grabbing the necessary bills from her wallet. "I don't know how many times I gotta tell you! I. Was. Under. Cover." She spoke back to him like he was an idiot, not a business owner. Maura supposed he could be both at the same time.

"Sure, sure." Stanely seemed to not believe her but took the offered money. Jane was still decent enough to leave a good tip. She rolled her eyes and they moved down the line to wait for the food to appear on the trays before them and then headed to sit at one of the remaining empty tables.

Maura had a strange sense of Deja Vu as she watched Jane bickering with Stanley, and she stared intently at the Detective as the pair began to eat. Jane tried to make idle conversation with Maura and was slightly put off at the short responses she received. Maura seemed to be mulling something over, so Jane decided to focus on eating. It was then that Maura broke out into one of the loudest laughs she had yet released, and Jane looked up at her, alarmed.

"You losing it, Doc?" She asked her friend, unsure. Maura covered her mouth with her hand as she got herself under control, amusement plain on her face. Jane took a sip of coffee, waiting.

"Oh, Jane!" Maura spoke through her laughter. "You were the prostitute!" Maura laughed louder as coffee nearly shot out of Jane's nose, making the Detective choke and cough.

"I was the_ what?_" Jane was shocked, she didn't know what on earth Maura could be talking about. The ME kept smiling, though Janes coughing fit sobered her some.

"About a year and a half ago," Maura explained, "I had to stop by this precinct to consult with one of the Detectives about a court case we were working on, and I saw you at that counter yelling at Stanley." Maura saw realization dawn on Jane's face and the pair burst into laughter together, gaining several looks from the other patrons of the cafe.

"You put on a latex glove before offering me money for a donut!" Jane laughed out. "Maura, that was _so rude!_" Tears were forming in Jane's eyes and Maura's stomach hurt from the laughter.

"I didn't know where your hands had been, Jane, I thought you were a Lady of the Night!" Maura defended herself, and Jane laughed at the phrase she used. "I was simply trying to be nice." Maura quoted herself from their first meeting and they laughed together once more. "_You _were rude, Jane." The Doctor informed her with finality.

"I wasn't_ rude_, Maura, I was _undercover!_" They smiled at each other from across the table and Jane realized that they were done eating. She looked up to see Korsak and Frost calling the elevator in the hallway, glancing over at the women. Maura looked at the clock on the wall above Jane's head and was shocked to see the time. She thought she's hazard a joke as a goodbye.

"It looks as though I'm required downstairs... Thank you for breakfast, _Tiffany_." She grinned across the table, standing as Jane processed the use of her old undercover alias. Jane chuckled and stood too.

"Is there anything you don't remember?" She asked the ME as she shook her head with a smile.

"I wouldn't remember if there was." Maura supplied smartly. They moved from the cafe, depositing their trays in the designated spot before exiting together. Jane waved at Maura as she moved to catch up to her team, and Maura smiled over to the group as she watched then step onto the elevator. Korsak waved to her and Frost smiled before turning back to ask Jane something Maura didn't hear. It was the start of another wonderful day.


	6. Chapter 6

"Did you stay at her place last night?" Frost turned to quietly ask Jane after she had parted from Maura and entered the elevator. Jane moved her head away from her partner to stare at him in disbelief. It took her a few moments to process.

_"No!"_ Jane responded a little too defensively. "Why would you think that?" Jane stared at Frost like he was a recently escaped insane asylum patient. She might have smacked him again if he hadn't had his hands full with a tray of coffees.

Korsak cleared his throat once and then pretended he couldn't hear anything. He stared at the numbers that indicated the floor they were on, and he crossed his arms as they moved way too slowly for his comfort. Frost continued.

"Uhh, I just assumed. You guys really hit it off yesterday and left the bar at the same time, and you were eating breakfast together so..." He shrugged. Jane scoffed at her partner before she responded.

"Oh, what? You think us_ girls_ become friends and immediately we have to have a sleepover and pillow fight?Braid each other's hair and talk about boys?" Jane crossed her arms and stared at Frost. "And to think just yesterday you were such a feminist," She rolled her eyes. Korsak let out a breath as they reached their floor and clapped Jane on the back once before he put in his two cents.

"I don't think that's how he meant it, Janie." The older man exited the elevator as quickly as possible, waiting for an explosion that Frost didn't know enough to expect. The younger man glanced at Jane's frozen face before he followed Korsak out into the hallway, leaving Jane momentarily alone.

"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU THINK THAT I-" Jane started loudly as she began to follow the men, stopping when several of her other colleagues turned to stare at her. She caught up with her team and continued in a harsh whisper. "Why would you say that, Frost, why would you even_ think _that?

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you spent the entire day_ flirting _with each other yesterday?" Barry scoffed. "I'm honestly surprised you guys solved our case." He was being friendly, which only added to Jane's confusion.

"She wasn't _flirting_ with me, she's just _nice_, Frost. The last thing she needs is for people around here to have more ammo to use against her, so drop it," Jane tried to make sure Maura wouldn't be bullied about their breakfast date before she continued. She took a breath and leveled her voice a little. "I just texted her this morning to see if she wanted to go for a run and then we got hungry. That's all." Frost looked at Jane like he was mulling something over in his mind. It made her feel like she was under a microscope and she got uncomfortable under his gaze. She felt like he knew something that she didn't and it aggravated her.

"But you wanted her to be flirting with you." He said calmly as if they were discussing the weather.

"Listen, Barry, She's not even a lesb- I'm not into- I've never even- _we were not flirting_." Jane finished defensively, and Frost knew when he was pushing a subject that he should avoid.

"Okay." Frost nodded simply and booted up his PC.

_"Okay?"_ Jane asked confused. He offered his partner one of the coffees he had brought up. Jane read her own name on the lid._ An apology beverage_. She stared at the cup as if she suspected poisoning.

"Yeah, okay." Frost shrugged. "You went for a run and got some food after, no big deal. I'm sorry Jane, I just thought you guys really hit it off." He shrugged and leaned the coffee closer to her. Jane took the beverage and placed it to her left. She looked at Frost who was busying himself with his computer and decided to try to ease the tension with sass.

"She'd be_ way _outta my league anyway..." She chuckled, "...If I liked women." Frost looked back to her as she started to wake up her own PC.

"Nah, I thought you guys would have been perfect together." He smiled with another shrug, and turned to look at his screen again. Jane watched him and got the distinct impression that he was trying to solve something. She'd seen that look on his face several times the day before, but she knew he had no active cases. She nervously opened her email to sift through the last few month's worth of spam before Frost broke the silence without looking up from his desk. "It would be fine, you know... If you liked women." He stated it so only she would hear, again in a calm voice.

Jane didn't know how to respond, or even if she wanted to. Frost's last sentiment had left her more confused than she had been on the elevator ride up. Why had Frost assumed that she was gay? Sure, she wasn't exactly the most feminine person, but masculinity didn't equate to lesbianism just as femininity didn't mean a woman was straight. Was there something in the way she behaved as a person overall that made her seem_ that way?_ Jane wasn't homophobic at all, she'd just never considered the notion that she might be attracted to the fairer sex. She quickly tried to analyze the male body and compare it to a female one but it seemed strange and scientific to her. _Maura would laugh at me for this_. Jane thought. _Maura._ Jane thought Maura was odd, yes, but also smart and funny and kind. She thought Maura was beautiful, but that didn't mean that Jane was attracted to her sexually, did it? Jane sighed largely and decided that work was not the place to analyze Frost's assumption or the place to try to understand the complexities of human sexuality.

She knew her partner was trying to be kind, and she wanted him to know that she had appreciated the meaning behind his words without having to say so. She didn't know how she might be able to respond without being too snarky or too confusing. She looked at the coffee he had given her and exaggerated her actions as she reached out to take a sip of it. Frost didn't look up from his work but he smiled at Jane's actions. All was forgiven.

For the rest of Jane and Frost's partnership, he never made another joke about Jane and Maura's relationship or the meaning behind it. He was a good guy.

Jane set back to work clearing her folders and the men completed paperwork from the cases they'd worked in her absence. They sat in silence while they worked. Jane was surprised to look at the clock of her computer some time later and see that it was after ten. She'd finished everything that she could, and since the team had no active cases she could use her afternoon to find something else to do in the precinct.

Jane decided that she'd head down to the facilities gym. She hadn't been able to get a good workout in while she was on medical leave. She found she was looking forward to using the equipment that work had to offer. She had always appreciated the benefit of getting paid to stay in shape.

"Hey, Korsak, I'm all done here, is it cool if I head to the gym?" The older man waved a powdered donut to her as a reply, not looking up from the paper he was reading. She rolled her eyes and grinned with Frost. They were amused by the older man. She offered her partner a quick '_later_' before she headed to the women's changing room.

Jane was always glad to see that more women were entering her field of work, but walking into that particular room always made it clear just how much further the world still had to go. She noticed only two other women were in the changeroom. She quickly averted her eyes from the other women, afraid that they might think she was staring at them._ Frost assumed I was gay, _she mused. _What if they think I'm gay too?_ Jane moved to the locker that had been designated to her and she was glad to see that her old T-Shirt and shorts were folded cleanly within it. Jane didn't want to make the other women feel uncomfortable and considered moving to change in a stall before she scoffed at the idea. She knew that she wasn't looking at the other women, so it shouldn't matter if she was gay or not. If they were uncomfortable then that was their problem. She also decided that she didn't mind if people assumed she was a lesbian, it probably kept some of her less evolved male colleagues at bay.

Jane stretched in the changeroom as she always did, not wanting to elicit any unwanted attention from other gym attendees. She never liked it when men ogled her._ Maybe I am a lesbian_. She chuckled quietly to herself as she entered the gym.

She decided to do a short, full-body workout. She began with her legs and smiled at the familiar pulling of her muscles. As with all things, Jane put in one hundred percent of her effort, and it didn't take long for her to start to feel her muscles warm. She finished with her leg workout and paused to drink some water at the fountain before wiping her mouth. She headed towards the next circuit but heard her name being called.

"Jane!" Maura had just emerged from the change room and was walking over to the Detective. "Fancy seeing you here." She joked.

"Yeah," Jane agreed. "Long time no see." the detective joked back before noticing how Maura's workout attire hugged her body and seemed too fancy for the gym. "How do you still look like a supermodel even in spandex?" Jane seemed affronted at the idea, eyeing Maura's blue shirt. Maura just smiled and looked away, making a sound that was a cross between a scoff and a laugh.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Maura asked, indicating to the area Jane had been about to enter. "I've been wanting to try that machine for weeks but the label indicated that a spotter is required." Maura tilted her head with a very slight pout. Jane laughed and shook her head.

"Those labels are just suggestions, Maura. You don't have to follow_ every_ rule." She tried to joke, but it came out more snarkily than she'd intended. Jane watched as Maura's face shifted into one of the utmost seriousness.

"Jane, gym membership safety is not a joke." She was on the cusp of scolding. "A study released in 2013 proved that nearly eighty-seven percent of gym membership injuries are caused by a lack of-" Jane never learned that particular fact.

"Yeah, yes, okay! I'll spot you," Jane interrupted. "You're better than Wikipedia." Maura felt slightly affronted at being interrupted and took being compared to Wikipedia as an insult.

"Wikipedia is frequently incorrect," Maura stated. The good Doctor was rarely wrong. "Very little is rigorously peer-reviewed... Does it bother you? My... Facts?" Jane saw the hurt in Maura's face and her own immediately softened.

"Of course not, Maur. You're smart, I like that about you, I respect it. You were just trying to make sure we don't get hurt." Jane offered an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. It's just something Frost said. It's kinda getting to me is all." Jane shrugged at Maura, who gazed into the Detective's soft brown eyes and saw genuine sorrow there.

"Would you like to discuss it?" Maura offered, thinking that she might help ease Jane of the tension. The Detective didn't need any more stress than absolutely necessary; added on top of her lack of sleep. Jane shook her head and grinned at Maura, breaking the tension with a joke.

"Nah, maybe later... We're supposed to be pumping iron." Jane flexed her triceps at Maura by making fists near her hips, and Maura laughed, shaking her head. Maura thought Jane was beautifully sculpted. The detective's musculature was incredibly well defined from years of use, and Jane's tight spandex shorts left Maura's imagination with more detail than she had previously been able to enjoy. Maura laughed out loud at herself for openly checking Jane out. She decided to play it off as a joke.

"Not like you need it, Detective," the ME stated, a little more sultrily than she'd intended before she winked at Jane and moved toward the equipment. Jane stood in the middle of the room, glad her face was already red from her workout, trying to breathe. _Was that a joke?_ She wondered before laughing, just like Maura had, and followed her to the machine. _Of course, it was._ Jane decided.

"Ladies first." Jane waved to the seat of the machine, moving her hands under the heavy bar after Maura got into place.

Maura noticed as she began her set, that Jane was avoiding looking at her. The detective's eyes were either fixed on the bar she was holding or looking up at the ceiling. She wondered what might be making Jane uncomfortable and surmised that her friend must still be distracted by whatever Frost had said. She moved to switch places with Jane and the Detective was surprised to see that Maura had been using the machine at the weight Jane normally would have. She glanced at Maura's arms but looked away when she realized the ME was watching her. She'd noticed how defined Maura's muscles were and found herself wondering how the other woman stayed in such good shape. Jane tried not to blush as she noticed Maura openly studying her body, a slightly glazed look in her eyes.

"You're kind of distracting me, Maura," Jane said, without starting her workout.

"What? Jane, I didn't even say anything." Maura chuckled to her friend.

"But you're watching me," Jane argued as if it was obvious.

"I was simply appreciating your sternocleidomastoid. You have beautifully developed musculature. The human body is quite amazing, don't you think?" Maura asked with a smile.

"Welp." Jane moved off of the machine. "I'm done." She stood and walked away from Maura who stood looking after Jane with a confused smile.

"Jane, we've barely even started. I'm not even warmed up yet!" Maura followed Jane out into the hallway. She grabbed the other woman's wrist but released it almost immediately.

"I am_ never_ working out with you again." Jane chuckled out, pointedly looking at Maura.

"Did I do something that made you feel uncomfortable?" Maura asked. She thought back on the last few minutes and couldn't think of anything she may have done wrong.

"_Maura!"_ Jane stared at her friend for a moment before she continued. "I just felt like… I dunno… You know when you walk by a construction site and one to the guys calls out 'hey nice ass, sweetcheeks'"? She looked down at Maura as if her point had been made, but the metaphor went over the ME's head.

"Well, you do have a wonderfully proportioned gluteus-"

"_Oh my god, Maura. STOP!" _Jane scoffed and took her hair out of her ponytail. She was trying to think of a way to explain to Maura how she was feeling, but Jane didn't even know how she was feeling, so she couldn't find any words.

"Jane, I'm sorry if I made you feel negatively, I certainly would never intend for you to feel uncomfortable." Jane's face softened at the worry in the ME's eyes. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"It's fine, Maura. I guess I just wasn't expecting you to start complimenting my ass." Jane laughed before she nudged Maura's arm. "Really, it's okay, Maur." Before the ME could respond a man approached the women, having overheard some of their conversation. He was well-muscled but shorter than Jane was.

"_Mmm, _talk about a nice ass." The man pointedly checked out Maura, who backed away from him slightly. She was used to getting compliments on her body but was not used to being appraised so suggestively in public, or by people she had previously seen in lockup. Jane took a step forward, slightly placing herself in front of Maura as her years of training kicked in.

"Hey buddy, we're in the middle of something here, would you mind?" The detective made to place her hand on her hip next to her badge before remembering it was in her locker._ Shit. _

"Oh, I'd like to get in the middle, alright." The man tried to sidestep Jane to address Maura again but Jane placed a firm hand on his chest to stop him.

"Jane… " Maura tried to deescalate the situation but found that this was a rare situation where she couldn't form words. All Jane heard in her name was that Maura was uncomfortable and felt unsafe. The detective analyzed the man in front of her and decided that since she didn't have her badge, she couldn't threaten an arrest. He likely wouldn't believe that a woman could be a Detective, anyway, based on how he spoke to females. She would have to take care of the issue without the power the brass shield weld.

"You're gonna wanna back off." She growled in her low voice. Maura was reminded of hackles being raised on the backs of wolves. The man seemed unafraid.

"Fuck off, you stupid dyke, let me show your little girlfriend what a real man can do." He slapped Jane's hand off of himself, but she quickly reached back up with both hands to nudge his shoulders back slightly.

"You come closer again and you're gonna regret it," Jane warned him in her menacing guttural tone.

"What're you gonna do, _lady?_ Fight me?" The man stepped up to Jane trying to be menacing, but she inched slightly closer and used her height advantage to stare down her nose at the man.

"If I have to." She threatened.

Maura had never been so frozen in her life. She was aroused from gazing at Jane's muscles while they had been in the gym, and aroused further still at the toughness the other woman was exhibiting. This was natural selection at work; women were attracted to whatever potential mate was the strongest. Maura tried to science her way out of her arousal with little success. She was also nervous for her friend, and afraid of the man on the other side of her. She watched, shellshocked.

To her surprise, the man wound up for a punch but Jane blocked it before he could hit the Detective's face. The brunette made use of the adrenaline already pumping through her body and maneuvered smoothly around the man. She held one of his wrists behind his back before she grasped his other arm and used her knee to knock the man's legs out from under him. He quickly used the back of his head to hit her in the face in an attempt to get free before he fell to the ground.

The scuffle garnered the attention of a couple of uniforms who recognized Jane right away.

"Detective Rizzoli?" One of the officers looked at her questioningly. "What happened?" He deferred to her authority. Her nose hurt and the situation did nothing to improve her mood.

"This man just sexually harassed my friend, here, before assaulting a Homicide Detective, that's what happened." Jane spat out to the officer. She wiped her nose on her arm and saw blood. "Bring this asshole to lockup and tell Korsak he can get our statement later, alright Jerry?" Jane began tilting her head back to try to stop the flow of blood, holding her nose. She felt a bump. Maura stepped up to Jane and took hold of the Detective's wrist, tilting Jane's arm and head forward to look down at the ground instead.

The officers followed Jane's command and hauled the man toward the elevators. He complained all the while about Jane. Maura brought her friend's attention back from the man.

"Holding your face up like that does nothing but increase the risk of choking," Maura stated seriously. "Keep your head bowed to the floor and follow me." Maura let go of Jane's wrist to link her arm with Jane's free one before leading the Detective to the bathroom. Once the pair arrived at their destination Maura turned to face Jane. "Alright, let me see it," she instructed.

"No, Maura, I'm fine, just get me some paper towel." Jane tried to wave her off.

"Jane, I'm a Doctor." Maura fought back.

"Yeah, for _dead _people." Jane sassed. "I am not dead, Maura, my_ nose _has a heartbeat." Maura squinted her eyes at Jane in annoyance before moving to get the paper towel that had been requested.

"You are going to wait for the bleeding to subside, and then you are going to let me have a look. I need to assess the damage, Jane," Maura bossed with a polite smile. The detective was not prepared to be on the receiving end of the ME's orders and so she didn't have time to prepare her usual snarky reply.

"...Okay." She agreed nervously, glancing at Maura's face before looking back at the ground to avoid being further scolded for having her head up. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, Jane periodically checking the tissue she held. She cleared her throat before speaking. "Alright, what's the damage?" She withdrew the tissue completely and looked into Maura's studying face.

"Hairline fracture... Above the nasal bone to the lateral nasal cartilage." Maura assessed. "It's not disfiguring." She tried to comfort Jane, who felt better at Maura's words. She quickly translated that Maura had meant: '_I know what's wrong with your face and you are going to be okay.` _She softly smiled back at the ME.

"Could you pop it out for me?" She husked out. Her voice was still a little deeper than usual. Maura looked away from Jane momentarily, amused at her friend's show of strength and still trying to fight the arousal that had built in her body during their workout. It hadn't helped matters to see Jane stand up for her and then take down a perp in her tight clothing.

"Couldn't you have done something safe, like yell for backup?" Maura asked with a shake of her head. Jane just grinned down at her. "This might hurt a little," Maura said before she placed her hand in the cleft of Jane's chin to assess the damage more closely.

"Okay," Jane repeated herself. The detective was pleasantly distracted by the focus on Maura's face. Once more she admired how the Blonde's eyebrows drew together in concentration, and she found herself getting lost in Maura's hazel eyes. She heard Maura grumble a little and the Doctor placed her fingers on either side of Jane's nose. With a loud_ 'POP'_, Jane jumped back out of Maura's reach.

"OW!" She complained._ "A little?" _She moved her arms up in an exaggerated shrug. Maura ignored Jane's dramatics.

"Put some ice on it for the next twenty-four hours so you don't look like Mike Tyson," Maura instructed smiling through Jane's pained groaning. The Detective reached her hand up to her nose again to feel the lump beginning to lessen. She sniffled and was glad to be able to breathe through her nose again. Maura was watching Jane with her lower lip drawn in between her teeth. Her eyes looked slightly glazed over again.

"You alright over there, Doctor?" Jane asked her, throwing her bloody tissue into the trash. Jane's husky voice did nothing to help Maura, and the Doctor decided to remove herself from the situation before she could make a fool of herself or make Jane more uncomfortable.

"Yes I'm -" The Doctor swallowed. "I just need to- I have something to-" Maura started several sentences without finishing them. She couldn't lie, and so she said nothing. She pointed to the door and exited the room without another word, leaving a very confused Detective in her wake.

"What the hell was that?" Jane mused out loud.

R&I

Maura rushed out of the bathroom and made her way back to the elevator. Earlier, she had changed into her workout clothes in her office so she could forgo the changing room altogether and she was grateful for that fact. She frantically pressed the down arrow repeatedly, knowing that it would not make the lift move any faster. She didn't hear Barry Frost calling her name as he walked towards her and she jumped when he lightly placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh! Sorry Dr. Isles," He apologized. He noted how she was shifting slightly from foot to foot and glancing behind his shoulder. "Maura, is there something wrong?" He turned to look over his shoulder and saw Jane exiting the women's washroom as he heard the elevator doors open. He felt himself being tugged, with a surprising amount of strength, into the lift. "Maura! What the hell?" He spat out in shock. Maura let go of him and began hitting the close door button. She did not cease her pressing until the doors closed, and she finally backed up into the wall of the elevator with a large breath. "You gonna tell me what that was all about?" Frost looked at her with a questioning expression. She opened her eyes to look at him.

"Barold, I'm so sorry. I just needed to get away from Jane." Maura admitted. She couldn't keep the truth in her mouth any longer. "She was with me in the gym and I was admiring… her musculature and it made her seem rather uncomfortable. Then, a man in the hallway tried to hit on me so she fought him and had him arrested, and after I popped her nose back into place I found that I wasn't quite able to control my… My thoughts. So I simply had to get away." She let all of the information flow out of her mouth and closed her eyes tightly. She scrunched up her face and waited for Barry to react. She didn't know what to expect from him, but it certainly wasn't his gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Maura." Frost waited until she opened her eyes to look at him before he continued. "Maura, it's okay." He placed his other hand on her other shoulder and repeated himself. "It's okay. Take a breath, that's it. One more. Explain to me what's happening to yourself." He smiled as she listened to his instructions. She smiled back at him.

"Calming and distraction techniques. You are calming me from a panic attack by distracting me and making me breathe, lowering my heart rate in the process." She viewed the situation from an outsider's perspective and was impressed with Barry's abilities to calm her. At some point, he must have hit the stop button on the elevator, because he reached out to make the lift move again.

"Good. Keep focusing on your breathing." He looked over to her and earned a grateful smile in return. They walked in silence to her office and he closed the door behind them as Maura took a seat at her desk. He took an empty chair across from her. "Do you want to talk about it?" She took another steadying breath.

"I… I'm not sure." She spoke honestly. "I don't know what to say." She admitted to him with a shy smile.

"You could start by letting me know how you're feeling." He suggested back.

"Jane was acting…" Maura searched her desk, though she would not find the answer there. "Odd." Frost gave a small chuckle and looked at Maura apologetically.

"Yeah, that's probably my fault. She kind of freaked out this morning when I assumed that you two…" He looked down at the floor, not sure how Maura would react to his assumption. "I assumed that the two of you kind of hooked up last night." She barked out a laugh and looked just as shocked at the sound as Frost did.

"You assumed that we had intercourse?" She asked him, surprised.

"Yeah, she set me right, though. I know you aren't gay or whatever… Well, I know nothing happened anyway." He corrected himself, not wanting to assume anything more about either woman. He watched as Maura looked down at her hands which she was holding clasped together in her lap. She didn't respond for several seconds so Barry continued. "Did you… want something to happen last night?" He asked, not wanting to push his limits, but wanting to let Maura know that she could talk to him about it. She sighed and looked up, placing her hands flat on her desk.

"I don't know," she repeated herself. "It was certainly nice to feel included."

"Well, do you find her attractive?" He pushed. She gazed steadily back and could not lie.

"Yes." She offered simply.

"Well, would you like to be more than friends with her?"

"Are we friends? Jane and I?" Maura honestly wasn't sure of it yet.

"Yes, it's obvious that she likes you, so I think so," he smiled at her.

"I like that she likes me," she admitted. "Having a friend is nice, I've never really gotten close to anybody like this before… I'd rather not risk losing the potential friendship over a physical admiration."

"And..?" He tried to prompt her to continue.

"_And, _I made her feel uncomfortable when I was admiring her in the gym, so much so, in fact, that she literally stopped working out to leave the room." Maura now realized that she was the reason Jane had been odd. "I made her feel objectified." Maura looked back down at her hands, confused at other people's shyness when it came to scientific admiration of anatomy (even though that was not the only reason Maura had been looking).

"Maura, I'm sure she's not uncomfortable with you, she's just… Confused, I think." He offered, trying to make her feel more at ease.

"How can you know, Barry?" She pleaded with him, her eyes wide and worrying.

"I can't know. Not for sure," he admitted, "but she acts similarly to how my mom used to act. My mom was married to my dad for twenty years before she met her wife. When I started to ask questions about their friendship, she would get defensive incredibly fast and drop the subject as soon as possible." He shrugged. "Jane did the same thing, and she holds doors open for you and helped you with your coat. I don't know." He shrugged.

"But Barry, how can _I_ know_?"_ She was looking for the answer that seemed obvious to Frost.

"You could just ask her. You don't shy away from any other questions." He laughed, making it clear that he was joking. She smiled back at him, sadly, though. "She likes that about you, you know. Your honesty." He smiled with one half of his mouth before she sighed.

"What if she runs away from me?" Maura worried aloud. "She's the only person who's ever really given me a chance and I don't want her to avoid me. I don't want to make her feel objectified or uncomfortable. I really enjoy having a friend and I don't want to lose that friendship. I want to make her feel…" Maura shrugged, not sure how to continue. Silence took over the room once more and he waited for her patiently. "I want to make her feel how she makes me feel."

"How does she make you feel?" He spoke quietly in his calming tone. Maura took several minutes to answer.

"...Important…" She maintained eye contact with him. "...Understood… Like what I'm saying is valuable, cherished, almost." She looked at him as if the answer would be written on his face. He smiled at her and shrugged.

"Well, I guess if you don't feel like you can ask her, you'll have to show her how she makes you feel and try to make her feel just as valued. Just as important and understood. Cherish her right back, Dr. Isles. You can do that and just be friends with her, or you can both let it grow into something more, naturally." He smiled at her again when it became clear that she wasn't going to respond. Her mind was too busy processing. He stood from the chair and straightened his tie (crooked from when Maura had pulled him into the lift). He walked over to the door and opened it, turning with one hand still on the knob. "I'm here if you want to talk, you know? It's not just Jane who values you." She looked at him and he nodded before leaving her to her thoughts.

_He is a very good man. _Maura thought.

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**I love Frost so much. I hope I'm doing his character justice. :) **


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks for the reviews! I'm still trying to find a good balance between my own content and show references, let me know what you think!**

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Jane exited the washroom while looking down at the blood that had dripped onto her shirt. She had a fleeting thought about how much money she'd wasted on clothes that she ended up tossing away due to bloodstains; her own or otherwise. She decided that she'd ask Maura if she had any science to help her remove it from her shirt. The thought of her friend made Jane glance up and try to locate the ME.

_Why did she run away from me?_ Jane wondered. She knew that Maura had just been starting to work out, so the ME obviously had some free time. She thought of Maura's unfinished sentences but couldn't put the words together to form any kind of reasonable meaning. Jane surmised that Maura simply wanted to get away from her. Had she done something wrong? Jane worried that she may have hurt Maura's feelings when she'd threatened to never go to the gym with her again, or when she's compared Maura's scientific appreciation for muscles to a construction site neanderthal's harassment. She worried that maybe she'd scared Maura in her brief tussle in the hallway with that man. _She can't be scared of me, can she? I was trying to protect her. _Jane remembered Maura's heavy breathing and the glazed look that had been in her eyes. It could have been fear.

She wanted answers but had the sense to give Maura the space she so obviously needed. Jane ran a hand through her hair and started to make her way back to the changing room. Susie Chang bumped into Jane with an impressive amount of speed, and the Criminalist would have fallen had the Detective not had the reflexes to catch her shoulders.

"Damn, Chang, where's the fire?" Jane chuckled. Susie stared, panic-stricken at Jane as the Detective made sure the other woman was steady on her feet.

"Detective Rizzoli! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you! I was so focused on finding something with sucrose in it." Susie looked nervously at Jane's face and then to the floor. "Sorry." She mumbled again.

"Hey, don't sweat it." Jane waved her off. "Why are you looking for sugar?" Jane asked the Criminalist, confused. "Maura need a coffee fix for her next round of bodies or something?" Susie laughed nervously before responding.

"Not exactly…" Susie adjusted her glasses before continuing. "She's got us doing a scavenger hunt… We're not very busy in the lab today… at all." The criminalist shifted nervously and expected Jane to get angry but was delighted to see genuine excitement cross her face instead.

"A scavenger hunt? That's awesome!" Jane smiled at Susie, dimples on show. "You know, I happen to know of a decorated Homicide Detective who's free right now… Maybe I could help?" Jane raised and lowered her eyebrows at the Criminalist who chuckled back.

"If you'd like, sure!" Susie handed a piece of paper to Jane. "Here's what I've found so far." Jane looked down at the paper in confusion and then up into her colleague's face several times before she responded.

"Uhhh… Chang? This is the Periodic Table." Jane pointed to the paper; many of the squares were highlighted.

"Yes," Susie agreed. Jane raised her eyebrows at the woman and looked down at the paper once more before she put the pieces together.

"So, the lab is slow and Maura prints off a few Periodic Tables and has the entire Geek Squad running around the building highlighting off scientific elements as they are found. Am I correct?" She looked up at Susie who pushed her glasses further up her nose.

"Basically," The woman admitted.

"Of course that would be her idea of fun." Jane joked with Susie comfortably about the ME as both women respected the Doctor.

"She was in a good mood this morning… I think she wanted to spread the fun. Her date must have gone really well last night for her to have us-"

"Her what now?" Jane interrupted.

"Her date," Susie repeated. The detective stared down at the Criminalist in silence and the smaller woman spilled everything she knew under the intensity of the gaze. "Yesterday night she was smiling at her phone, so I asked if she was going on a date and she confirmed." Susie spilled the information quickly.

"She said _yes?" _Jane was surprised. She hadn't intended for last night to be a date. _Did Maura think it was a date? _Jane mused. _It would explain why she was looking at my ass. _Her train of thought was interrupted.

"Well, I believe her exact phrasing was, 'something like that,' so she didn't confirm_ or_ deny, really. I'd just made an assumption, and after how happy she was this morning I figured… Well, it doesn't really matter what I figured." Susie chuckled nervously again as Jane handed her the periodic table. "I should get back to it, would you still like to help?" The Criminalist lifted the paper in the air.

"Nah, I'm good." Jane waved her off distractedly and the Criminalist started to walk away. "Oh hey, Susie?" She turned back to look at Jane. "Thanks." Jane smiled. Susie nodded and walked towards the cafe in search of some sugar.

_Maybe Detective Rizzoli isn't so scary after all,_ Susie thought as she made her way from the Detective.

Jane changed back into her clothes wondering whether Maura had thought that their meeting at the bar was a date or not, and regretted fighting with the man in the hallway. She was now convinced that Maura was afraid of her because of it. She would have to apologize to her new friend, not wanting to put a damper on their growing closeness. She decided to go back to her cousin's restaurant and get lunch for herself and for Maura as an apology.

Jane let Korsak know she'd be gone for about an hour and made her way through the streets of Boston. She'd remembered what Maura had chosen to eat the day before and picked up two; one salad for the Doctor and one for herself. She also decided to splurge on two donuts and thought of a game she could entice Maura with to ease any tension that may be lingering between them. Her cousin wasn't at the restaurant that day so it was a fast pick up.

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Jane entered the Morgue and saw Maura in a stool studying her laptop. Jane watched her for a few moments before deciding to interrupt. The ME looked beautiful in her black scrubs and lab coat, her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. Jane thought that Maura's body language was unmistakably nervous and Jane took it upon herself to lighten up the mood.

"Your minions done with your science hunt?" She started in a joking tone. The ME turned around to look at Jane with a polite smile and a nod before she turned to look at the laptop again. "Who won?" Jane asked, trying to gain the Doctor's full attention.

"Susie, of course. Just as I predicted." The blonde still didn't look up from the screen.

"Predicted, huh? Sound like a _guess_ to me." Jane teased, finally getting Maura to fully turn around.

"It was a statistical probability." She defended, eyeing Jane before turning back to her laptop. "Cobalt blue slingbacks," Maura said admiringly to her laptop screen. Jane, ever the detective, angled herself to see what had the ME so distracted.

"Maura, are you _shoe shopping_ at work right now?" She asked incredulously as she eyed a ridiculously expensive pair of blue heels.

"I haven't purchased anything yet, so… No?" The ME looked back at Jane guiltily. "I felt a distraction was appropriate to calm myself down." She explained.

"As in a distraction technique? Like, for a panic attack?" Jane felt guiltier than ever for having scared her friend but covered her emotions so she could be sure Maura was okay. "Hard to believe the Queen of the Dead would be scared of anything." She offered a smile. "Don't you have any studies up in that big, beautiful brain of yours about repeated exposure or whatever?" She tried to prompt her friend to talk about what was bothering her.

"Immersion therapy. Very effective… It worked for me." Maura nodded, turning back to look at the shoes on her screen once again.

"Oh yeah? What were you afraid of?" The kindness in Jane's voice made the ME feel at ease and for once, she decided to open up.

"People." The Doctor turned in her chair to look at Jane again. "Live ones." She explained with a sad smile. "The bodies that I work on… They'll never judge me, tease me… and I can help them. I can speak for the dead." She finished with a genuine, proud smile and Jane felt a rush of admiration for the other woman. The innocent truth of the statement gave Jane background into what kind of past Maura had, and it softened her. It gave her insight into why Maura was the way that she was, and why she was so good at her job.

"Never tease you, huh?" Jane asked. "You get a lot of that growing up?" The ME nodded. "Yeah, me too. Joey Grant used to chase me around the soccer field calling me frog-face and chanting 'roly-poly-Rizzoli eats cannoli'. What an ass. What did they call you?" Jane used her Detective training to relate to Maura to get her to open up. It worked.

"_Maura, the Bore-a._" She chanted in a singsong voice. "You know, they meant that I was boring, but it doesn't rhyme." She explained as if the non-rhyming made it worse. "Do you think maybe I was?" She tried to muse nonchalantly but the tone didn't convince Jane.

"You, boring?" Jane grinned at her friend. "Never." The sureness of Jane's response brought a smile to Maura's face. "I think you've probably always been smart, maybe a little weird," Jane continued the joke. "Never boring." Maura looked into Jane's kind eyes and a feeling of happiness filled her body. It was nice to have a friend.

"Thank you," the ME whispered.

"Hey, Maur..." Jane began slowly. She was never good at apologizing. "If I scared you when I scuffled with that asshat in the hallway…" She paused, looking at the ground before continuing. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel like that. I was trying to make you feel safe… Guess I kinda did the opposite, huh?" Jane chuckled at herself before looking back into Maura's face.

"No, Jane. You didn't frighten me." Maura was beginning to get frustrated at the miscommunications that were occurring that day. She decided to clear the air as much as she dared to in her current state of mind. "You made me feel… Protected," she finished with a nod as if agreeing with herself. "I left simply because I was afraid that I had made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe with my assessment of your… musculature." To Maura's surprise, Jane laughed.

"It's gonna take a hell of a lot more than complimenting my ass to scare me, Doctor Isles." Jane was joking with the ME again. It calmed Maura greatly to know that her new friend didn't feel the need to pull away. She realized that she felt just as safe around the Detective as she did when she was alone in the morgue with only the dead to keep her company. It was strange, Maura knew, but it made her happy anyway. It was a feeling of human connection that she'd not yet been able to experience and it invigorated her.

"When I was a kid, I was scared of witches." Jane continued to joke. "My family went to Salem when I was little." She explained at Maura's surprised glance. "What? You didn't have any childhood fears that made you sleep with a nightlight?" Maura shook her head before responding.

"No, I was afraid of chromobacterium violaceum." Maura stated the words as if they could wound her. Jane slumped her shoulder at the words and tilted her head to the side, nervous disgust evident on her face.

"What's that?" Jane asked, but didn't really want to know the answer, she didn't even want to imagine the kind of things that would have scared a young Maura Isles. Maura continued to explain as if uttering the words would make the bacteria appear on her skin.

"It's a flesh-eating bacteria… Crawls inside your ear or your nose and it starts eating you from the inside out until you-"

"Oh, God, yeah. I got it, you can stop, God." Jane raised up her hand. "Thank you for that." She shook her head at the ME in disbelief.

"It's horrible." Maura agreed. She noticed the dark circles under the Detective's eyes once more and wondered again what had gotten her friend up so early. What could make Jane, who could willingly protect and serve with no regard for herself, wake up so early in the morning with such a small amount of sleep? "What really scares you, Jane?" Maura found herself asking. The ME wanted to reciprocate the care and protection that Jane had provided to her. Jane looked into Maura's face and saw care filled curiosity there. She read in the ME's eyes that the blonde was just as interested in making Jane feel safe, and she found that under Maura's caring gaze, she couldn't keep her own truth down.

"Nightmares," Jane whispered. Maura blinked her understanding and they gazed at each other for a few moments, Jane trying to understand the enigma of a woman before her, while Maura waited to see if her friend might elaborate. Instead, Jane cleared her throat and changed the subject.

"Look, I brought you presents!" Jane said in a purposefully excited tone that effectively distracted the ME from the discussion. She held up the brown paper bags that she'd been holding with an exaggerated smile.

"Oo, I like presents," Maura admitted, finally standing from her stool, very interested in the brown bags. Jane laughed as her friend rubbed her hands together in excitement.

"Come on, let's go to your office." Jane led the way chuckling and shaking her head. She placed the bags on Maura's desk and sat down in the chair that was now her favorite spot. Maura had followed excitedly behind Jane, having smiled all the while.

"What do we have here?" Maura mused aloud as she opened one of the bags. "You brought me lunch?" She asked, looking up at Jane who nodded. Maura moved to the second bag with a smile, but it shifted into confusion as she processed what the contents were. "You brought me… powdered donuts?" Jane laughed at Maura's surprised tone.

"Sucrose! Like, from your scavenger hunt!" Jane pointed to the bag and earned a large smile from the ME. "I got you a salad, and I got myself a salad instead of a burger," Jane explained the rules of the game. "I'm gonna eat your rabbit food and then _you're_ going to eat one of those powdered donuts," Maura gestured as if she was going to argue but Jane kept speaking. "You're going to eat one of the powdered donuts_ and _you can't complain about the carbs or obesity rates or… Whatever!" She smiled at Maura who seemed to be considering the rules.

"I can accept these terms." She finally agreed, taking the salads out of the bag and handing one to Jane, who opened hers quickly and shoveled food into her mouth with reckless abandon. Maura shook her head but found the Detective oddly endearing.

"Oh shi-oot," Jane began around a mouthful of food. "I forgot to get drinks." She complained.

"That's okay, Jane, I have a couple of water bottles down here. I'll be right back." Maura smiled and stood, walking back into the morgue. She returned quickly and handed one of the bottles to Jane.

"Maura," Jane eyed the Doctor suspiciously. "Where did you get these?" She asked.

"In the fridge," Maura stated simply.

"In the _dead_ people fridge?" Jane stared at her friend in disgust.

"Jane," Maura responded. The detective was beginning to enjoy the way that Maura was able to fit entire sentences into just one name. '_Jane: you're being ridiculous,' 'Jane: you're making me laugh,' 'Jane: I'm afraid,' 'Jane: I don't understand what someone just said, please explain.' _The detective tried to hide her smile as best she could. "Cold air is cold air," Maura smiled, evidently amused.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna drink this," Jane said, putting the water bottle on Maura's desk, making the Doctor laugh again.

Both women were glad that the other seemed comfortable and confident in continuing the friendship. Jane was especially pleased to learn that she hadn't scared Maura at all, but that the ME had felt the way Jane had intended her to; protected and safe. After years of reading people, though, the Detective felt that there was something else her friend wasn't being entirely forthcoming about, but she decided it would be best not to push the ME too far too fast. Likewise, Maura was glad that Jane seemed just as eager to establish and foster friendship. The Detective had purchased food for her, held doors open, brought coffee, helped her with her coat and even stood up to a threatening man to make her feel safe. The Doctor had searched up the definitions for acquaintanceship and friendship and was surprised to see that Jane's actions surpassed both categories, bordering more on a spectrum of courtship. Still, the ME didn't want to get her hopes up as she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to risk her newfound friendship with Jane.

They finished eating the salad and Jane reached for the desert bag.

"So. Moment of truth," Jane stated seriously. "You ever had one of these before?" She asked the ME holding up a powdered donut.

"No," Maura stated simply. She eyed to dessert suspiciously.

"You ever _want_ to have one of these?" Jane asked. Maura seemed to think before responding.

"No," The ME shook her head, making Jane laugh.

"You would tell me if you _were_ a cyborg, right?" Maura considered the question.

"No, I don't think I would." The pair broke into laughter.

"Alright, here," Jane handed one of the donuts to the ME. Maura appraised the sugary treat before she risked a bite. Her eyes widened and she chewed the food quickly so she could tell Jane what she thought.

"Jane, this is _really_ good!" Maura seemed surprised but took another bite, making Jane chuckle. As they often were, the pair got interrupted by the Detective's phone.

"Rizzoli." Jane greeted while Maura finished off her dessert. "Yeah, I'll be right there." The Detective hung up her phone and stood. "I gotta go, there's been a shooting at Boston Cambridge University." Maura's eyes widened at the information.

"Jane, I want to go with you," the ME stated, and Jane looked surprised. "BCU was my Alma Mater, and if there was a gunshot, there could be a body," Maura stated smartly.

"Is that another guess, Doctor Isles?" Jane looked at her friend, mock seriousness on her face.

"I do not guess," Maura defended, looking down at the donut in Jane's hand. The Detective laughed at nodded to the Doctor.

"Don't think I don't notice you eyeing my donut, Doctor Isles," Jane teased. "You can have it… Only if you predict whether or not we're gonna have a body." Jane wiggled her eyebrows as Maura did her best to pretend to be angry; failing completely. She took her second donut from Jane and raised it in victory.

"Body." She'd decided. The dessert was worth the itchiness that she was sure to experience on the drive over to her old campus. Jane noticed the hives in the car and Maura filled her in on her inability to lie or guess. Her scratching only abated when they got a dispatch confirming the presence of a corpse at the scene. Jane chuckled slightly at Maura who relaxed at the news; acting as though all was right with the world again.


	8. Chapter 8

**The case the ladies are working on is still She Works Hard for the Money, but I don't go into too much detail because, hey, we've all seen it. Anyway, I feel that I've gotton to a point where real progression is imminent! Also, I got a _really _intriguing suggestion in one of my reviews about a steamy changeroom scene... I always aim to please the reader... **

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Jane stared into the crowds of students rushing around BCU. She felt like she was an outsider and her insecurities in her own education flared up. Jane was proud of what she did and thought her job was honorable, of course, but seeing so many young people have the opportunity she was never afforded always flared up a bitterness deep inside of herself that she had to work hard to control._ Jane _knew that she was a smart and well-accomplished woman, but walking through crowds of people both younger and better educated was more threatening to her than any shootout she'd been a part of. The Detective simply resented the notion that people without the opportunity to pursue higher education were less valuable than the people who did. She decided to let Maura in on why she was so nervous.

"College campuses are like a foreign country to me," she glanced at the ME who was walking as confidently as she always did, seemingly admiring the architecture of a large building.

"You attended the police training Academy." Maura offered with a smile. "Isn't that the same?"

"Hardly," Jane scoffed. "It's like high school but they taught us how to aim a gun." She tried to lift the conversation a little bit as they progressed through the crowd. Maura saw the insecurity on her friend's face and heard it in her voice. She was surprised that Jane might be threatened by other's education but remembered how the Detective had acted in Gino's restaurant when Maura had brought up BCU the first time.

"Jane, you're very smart." Maura supplied but Jane did not look convinced. "You know so much." Maura thought of the ways Jane's intellect even surpassed her own. From what the ME had gathered, Jane was a genius when it came to understanding other people. The Detective had a tendency to empathize with others to the point where she seemed to have little to no regard for her own self-preservation. Maura was certain than behind the brash and sarcastic ways of her new friend, there lay an intellect that rivaled even her own. "You know plenty more than me in regards to plenty of subjects."

"So why doesn't it feel like enough?" Jane argued, lifting the police tape for Maura. They dropped the subject to intake the body. When they were finished they rode back to headquarters in relative silence, and Maura was pleased when Jane followed her down to the morgue to view the autopsy. Frost and Korsak were taking care of the minimal leads they'd gotten. Maura prepped the body after they'd put on the necessary gowns and gloves.

"I can't believe this happened at one of the most prestigious schools in the country," Maura stated. "I loved every minute I was there." She looked up into her colleague's face and saw that Jane wasn't going to respond. Maura tried to make her feel better. "Maybe not every minute… Protein Biochemistry was incredibly dull." When Jane still didn't respond she decided to simply focus on her work. "Two centimeter, singular gunshot-wound, mid-chest."

"I bet we're looking for a nine millimeter." Jane finally spoke, cockily. Maura gave her an annoyed glance. "What? I'll have ballistics confirm, I just like to guess…" Jane was surprised at Maura's eye-roll. "... And I'm usually right." Jane tried to joke. The Detective might not have any degrees or doctorates but she was confident in her abilities when it came to her job, her family and her friends.

"You _are _very intelligent, Jane." Maura looked pointedly at her, trying to deflate her friend's insecurities. Jane shrugged in response.

"I don't know. I try not to have regrets, but watching you walk around like you owned that school and seeing the kids there... I feel like I missed out. I applied to BCU. I saw the library there, Maur, it's huge. Can you imagine who I might be if my parents could've…" she trailed off.

"You seem to know more about human beings than anyone I've ever met. You're a bright, accomplished woman, Jane. You know all kinds of things I'm simply not aware of, and you are very kind. You were kind enough to befriend me." Maura smiled up into Jane's face. "Nobody had ever done that before." The ME gazed into Jane's face and the Detective's sadness faded away as she peered back into the deep hazel before her. "Formal education does not always equate to or indicate a person's level of intelligence. Maybe you didn't get into BCU but-"

"Oh, I got in." Jane defended herself but was glad to hear that her new friend didn't think any less of her because they didn't have the same level of formal education. Maura stared at Jane in confusion for a moment.

"Why didn't you go?" Se asked. Jane shrugged and responded casually.

"I wanted to be a cop." She simply stated looking up into Maura's face. It was clear that the ME didn't believe her at all, so she told the truth. "My pop would have sold everything we owned to send me to that school… I couldn't do that to him or my brothers. I never told them. It would have made them too sad." Jane looked down at the body feeling guilty for being jealous of a dead girl.

"Jane, that's..." Maura started but paused, a little emotional. "I think that's very sweet." Maura looked at Jane admiringly and the Detective blushed.

"Oh, gross, okay, don't get all gooey or I'll have to leave." Jane threatened, semi-joking. "You really never had a friend before?" Jane looked at Maura, remembering the ME's statement from earlier. The Doctor sighed and rolled her neck before simply responding 'No.' and continuing with the autopsy. "Well, you've got one now, Maur, and I'm not planning on going anywhere, okay?" The detective smiled over to Maura who looked thankfully back at Jane before returning to her work, a pleased smile on both faces.

* * *

Over the course of the next few cases, Maura put in the effort to bring her results up to the bullpen whenever she could. She used it as an opportunity both to see Jane and to converse with Frost and Korsak or Frankie; sometimes even about non-work-related topics. She was very glad to see that the men were responsive to her attempts at friendship. She bonded with Frost about their similar tastes in clothing brands, complimenting his ties and suits, or talking about the food they both enjoyed. She laughed with Korsak about dog body language and how so many people read it wrong. She even helped Frankie get his car started one evening when he couldn't quite understand why the engine was making the sound that it was. Unbeknownst to Maura, each of the men had told Jane what a delight Maura was turning out to be, and Jane laughed at her teammates for letting Maura address them by their first full names; Barold and Vincent. Each member of the team was developing their workplace acquaintanceship with Maura into friendship, but none as quickly as Jane.

Maura learned that although Jane interpreted crime scenes in a very different way, she was often correct in her seemingly wild assumptions. Maura learned to trust Jane's 'gut', even though she didn't understand what intestines had to do with police work. Jane also offered Maura a gateway into a world she had not yet been able to experience. Jane's world was dictated by emotion, which made Maura uneasy and excited all at once. The nerves she experienced were well worth the reward of friendship though, and Maura was glad to finally be a part of a crowd that understood her intentions and enjoyed her company. She didn't think she could go back to how things were before Jane entered her life, and felt like that time of her life was worlds away instead of days.

During this time, Jane was absorbing knowledge about the other woman just as quickly, and with as much enthusiasm as her counterpart. She came to appreciate the fact that Maura never guessed at crime scenes; it kept Jane's hunches from getting away from her. It also allowed her to tease the ME, which she delighted in. She enjoyed the days when she was able to bounce her theories off of Maura, finding it endearing when the Doctor was adamant that her input was _NOT _guessing; simply statistical probabilities based on her experience and knowledge. Jane learned that when Maura was informing her of some seemingly random fact it was always for a reason: _"'when you run in worn-out shoes, it increases the stress and impact on your legs and joints'" _was Maura-Speak for_ 'If you keep wearing your old runners, you'll get sore feet.'_, just as '_french fries contain a lot of salt and acrylamide, which is a chemical that has been associated with cancer,_ meant_ take care of yourself, I care about your health._ Maura often used her knowledge to help those around her, trying to show that she cared, or she was simply excited at the prospect of sharing her knowledge; a fact that Jane could appreciate. Jane was becoming well versed in the language of Maura Isles and was happy to serve as a translator for people who misunderstood the ME, always quick to defend her friend.

The women pushed each other to succeed and expand, not with competition, but with inspiration. They each inspired the other to try new things and to consider things from new perspectives, and it showed in their work as their success rates increased.

Maura found it rare that she wasn't consulted with on a case, even if she wasn't directly involved in it. The team liked to bounce ideas off of the ME and Maura was happy to spend time with the Detectives, especially Jane. The team learned that if Maura had input on a case it was in everyone's best interest to listen to her. She never said anything if she didn't believe it completely.

Maura and Jane were each other's opposites in almost every way. Generally, this would create chaos in the field that they worked in, but for Detective Jane Rizzoli and Doctor Maura Isles, it served as a compound to their job that enhanced every aspect of their work. When Maura couldn't think outside the realm of science, Jane was able to step up and fill in the blanks. Likewise, when Jane's gut was sure that her hunches were correct, Maura confirmed with evidence that could not be disputed. Where Jane let emotions cloud her judgment, Maura steadied her with logic and reason. When Maura couldn't find ways to dictate how she was feeling, Jane helped her to find ways to express it through actions. It became a frequent thing for the people of the bullpen to hear the clicking of Maura's heels before she entered the room with a box of sugary treats for the room and an extra coffee for Jane.

It was odd for the people of the precinct to see the rough and tumble, often grumbly Jane Rizzoli walking around the building next to the impeccably dressed and ever professional Maura Isles, but for however many differences they had, the two women were exactly alike where it mattered most to them; they each had a drive for their career that they placed above all else, understanding and respecting that about each other. They each wanted to serve justice to the people whose lives had unfairly been cut short, and they each cared so much and so deeply about that passion that it sometimes became blinding. Every difference they had seemed to be irrelevant to them, for they came to understand each other and in that understanding grew respect. Respect that went beyond the frivolity of opposing opinions and personality traits. They found in that respect, and also in each other, a feeling of connection the likes of which neither had experienced before and they were grateful for it. Neither woman wanted it any other way.

They let the rates in which they closed cases speak for themselves as they quickly became known around the precinct as a dynamic duo (a fact the guys were quick to tease them both about). Nobody in the building could deny that when the two women worked together, one would be hard-pressed to find something to get in their way.

Apparently, one thing that _could _get in the way of their growing friendship was Adam Fairfield, or more accurately, how to proceed with the case surrounding his apparent drowning. Jane was adamant about treating the possible homicide as she would any other, but Maura's caring nature wanted to ensure that the Fairfield family could grieve properly before Jane could question them. After notifying the family, Jane and Maura fought through the entire car ride from the Fairfield mansion all the way to headquarters, with Barry Frost glancing between the two women from the back seat.

"Maura, you can't just blindly defend them just because you used to shack up with the victim's brother." Jane gripped the steering wheel tighter than necessary. "You haven't even seen these people in ten years and we don't know if this is a murder or not." Jane's comments caused Maura to cross her arms over her chest and stared indignantly at Jane's profile.

"Jane, you can't just harass my friends when they're grieving over the loss of a-"

"Harass them? Really, Maura? You think that's what I do for a living?" Jane spit out and shook her head. "Suppose it's nothing compared to owning a multi-billion dollar company. The owners of which, by the way, might just have killed Adam, but hey, so long as I'm not badgering them with my_ police work_, I suppose all is well." Jane clenched her jaw and looked nowhere but the road ahead of her.

"Jane, I simply meant that the Fairfield's are-"

"Above the rest of us because they have money. Yeah, we know that's how things work in _your_ world, Doctor Isles, but in the _real _world, people get questioned when they're suspects in a murder investigation! Sorry, you're not used to _slumming _it in the morgue yet with us lowly blue-collar workers." Both women's tones were increasing with every response and Frost sat as quietly as he could, willing himself not to be dragged into the argument.

"Jane, we don't even _know if _Adam's death is suspicious yet. I haven't completed the autopsy, but it's _my job_ to determine the cause of death, so _I'll _tell _you _whether we have a case here or not." Maura spat out it the most aggressive tone either of the detectives had heard her use. "I never assume anything, _Detective_, you know that, and I'm certainly not going to assume the worst of my friends." Maura turned to look out of the passenger side window, and Jane scoffed at the ME's use of the word 'friends', but they said nothing more. They pulled up to the precinct and everyone exited the car in silence. Maura bid Frost goodbye and walked off without a glance toward Jane.

"Can you believe her?" Jane asked her partner as they made their way to the bullpen. "She doesn't even know those assholes anymore, why is she so… so…?" Jane gestured with her hands, incapable of finding the right word.

"Can you believe yourself?" Frost asked his partner in a strong but patient tone. He didn't want to pick sides but felt it necessary to try to make his friend see the situation from an outside perspective. "Jane, you know how people react when their family or friends are suspects. Getting into a shouting match with your best friend probably didn't help either of you." He kept his tone as light as possible. Jane scoffed at him and ran her hand through her hair.

"Best friend." She rolled her eyes and threw her badge, with an unnecessary amount of force, onto her desk. Korsak looked up in concern but kept quiet. "Like she'd ever need someone like me." Jane plopped herself down in her chair and rubbed her face in her hands. "She doesn't even need this job, Frost. You know her family has, like, a bazillion dollars, right? What could having _me _as a best friend possibly add to her life?" Her final statements got Korsak to look to Frost for an explanation but the younger man simply shook his head as if to say 'you don't want to know,' so the Sergeant remained silent. He studied Jane's body language for a few moments and gathered that she was pissed. Based on that, and her conversation with Frost, Korsak deduced that she and the Doctor must have gotten into a disagreement. He was surprised to see Jane act so insecurely though because the two women were like night and day when it came to their approach of crime scenes but always compromised with those.

_Obviously, it must not be about a crime scene. _Korsak decided. He heard Jane muttering words like _'supid_' and_ 'rich assholes'_ and quickly came to the conclusion that his old partner was angry, insecure and even jealous about whatever had happened when the crew went to notify the family. Still, he was surprised to see how it was affecting Jane. Everyone in the building knew the pair of women were inseparable in their dedication to their work, which is why Sergeant Korsak was so surprised to find Doctor Isles calling his cellphone with results instead of Jane's during the middle of the high-priority case. Jane had looked up at his phone apprehensively before she all but slammed her head on her desk, staying in that position and groaning in frustration. He left for the morgue to get to the bottom of it.

"You wanna tell me what I'm doing here, Doctor Isles?" He looked at the ME's face and detected guilt. He pressured the truth out of her. "It _is_ supposed to be Jane's case." Maura glanced at the body on the table before she responded. She and Jane had their first actual disagreement on how to proceed with the case and although Maura was regretful of their opposing opinions, she didn't feel that she was wrong. She also knew that Jane didn't believe herself to be wrong and wasn't sure how to proceed with communicating with her friend without making the situation worse. Maura smiled weakly at the man and told a half-truth.

"I thought I could get the benefit of your sailing experience… With that and the body we found in the water, we might be able to determine the cause of death." She glanced at Korsak and she knew that he knew she wasn't being completely truthful.

"Listen, Doc, I don't believe that this is your first floater. I've been a cop for a long time." He leaned forward toward her. "I know when people aren't telling me the whole story…" He stared at the ME until she broke.

"Jane's mad at me!" She claimed, exasperated. She was teetering over the line of being dishonest and wanted to avoid hives so she let the truth spill out of herself. Korsak groaned and turned away from her.

"Oh, boy, here we go." The older man complained. He did not have the spare time to get involved with drama, but by God, he cared about Jane and Maura too much to ignore the good Doctor.

"She thinks I'm being biased because I used to be engaged with our victim's brother," Maura explained to Korsak's back. He considered telling Maura that it was possible that the Detective was jealous and feeling inadequate. He'd read the signs on the brunette, clear as day, but thought he ought to keep out of their personal lives. He didn't know what was going on between the two women but he'd sooner face a crazed gunman than put his nose in Jane's business. No way he would allow himself to be blamed if anything should go south between the two ladies.

"I'm not sure that's it, Doctor Isles." He turned to explain. "I don't think she's worried that your judgment is clouded… She knows how much justice means to you. It means the same thing to her… It's just… When you grow up like Jane, you're gonna have an attitude about people who, uh… Who are entitled." He said the last word apologetically, but she could tell that he was being honest. She was confused to say the least. Jane was one of the least judgemental people she'd ever met. Was it possible that Jane thought less of Maura because she came from money?

"That's a form of prejudice." She stated the fact as if it would help keep her fears at bay, but Korsak saw that she was worried. He took it upon himself to make the ME feel better. He'd grown to really care about her.

"Where people like me and Jane come from… We didn't have a lot." He kept his gaze steady and his tone light. "But we had each other's backs. Sounds to me like all Jane wants to know is do you have hers, or not?" He shrugged as Maura considered his words.

"Thank you, Vincent." Maura smiled kindly at the older man, who nodded and made his way from the morgue, knowing that he wasn't really needed.

Maura tried to think of a way to prove to Jane that she had her back, no matter what. It seemed to Maura that every interaction she tried to make with Jane during that case only served to make the Detective angrier. Maura simply could not understand her friend's perspective. She'd never been poor, she had always known that she'd have food on the table and got new school supplies every year. She'd never had to financially struggle and so her mind could not wrap around the idea of the bitterness many people held if they'd experienced a poorer lifestyle. What she could do, though, was try to use her advantages in the world to try to help solve the case. That is why Maura found herself sitting in a very expensive orange car, while her ex-fiance ran into a cafe to purchase coffees. She called the Detective with the intel she'd gathered from her ex-fiance to prove where her loyalties lie. The Detective seemed surprised to be receiving Maura's call and then confused when the ME had given her information that could help with the case.

"Why are you doing this?" Jane had asked. Maura could hear the confusion and trepidation through the phone.

"You're the best friend I've ever had, Jane and I will _always_ have your back," Maura responded resolutely. "I gotta go." She hung up the phone, watching a man she hadn't loved for over ten years walk towards the car. She would only have done this for Jane, to prove she cared more about her friend than she did about her own comfort. She was glad she had chosen a high cut dress that day so that nobody but herself would be aware of the rash that was breaking out all over her chest and stomach. She'd almost had a vasovagal episode when all of her fake flirting lead to her ex-fiance kissing her, but it would all be worth it if it proved to Jane how important the ME thought she was. She might enjoy going undercover if it didn't make her so itchy.

If her intel hadn't gotten her back into Jane's good graces, her determination that Adam Fairfield's death was indeed a murder certainly did. Through their usual prowess, the ladies solved the case, and to Maura's dismay, the murderer ended up being none other than her ex-fiance.

Jane seemed to be embarrassed and regretful of her irritability, especially when Maura discovered that she'd almost married someone who turned out to be a murderer. Jane had been acting like a child and she knew it. As a way of making sure Maura was okay and to apologize, Jane invited Maura out to get drinks to take their minds off of the case. The women found themselves in a restaurant that had been close by that neither had been to before. Maura still wasn't sure how she could explain to Jane that class differences were irrelevant to her. She didn't care where Jane came from, she only cared who Jane was now and that the Detective was her very best friend. The server brought them their requested drinks, and the pair studied each other from across the table before Maura broke the heavy silence.

"Jane, do you remember when you accused me of slumming it down in the morgue?" She looked across the table trying to understand her friend, trying to summon the words that Jane needed to hear.

"Maur, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." Jane looked apologetic and Maura nodded in agreement. They both smiled slightly remembering the ridiculousness of Jane's behavior but both women knew that they would make it through the rough patch of their friendship.

"Well, now you know." Maura started. "I'm from that world Jane, and it's a part of what makes me the way that I am, but I'm not a part of it." Maura shook her head, trying to focus. "Not anymore. These people, the Fairfields and my parents, they're not… They were never what I needed and they were never who I wanted to be. I don't care about what class I'm in, and I don't care about the Isles Foundation. I care about people. I care about you, and I care about the kindness, the compassion and bravery that you and our work exhibit every day." She looked into Jane's eyes and felt a tear leak out of her own. "I don't want you to feel like there's a barrier between us, Jane. There's not. For me there never will be, you're my equal in _every_ way. You treat every case and every person exactly the same, no matter who they are, what they look like or where they come from. I love that about you. It's a large part of why we're sitting here right now." Maura admitted, and they both laughed, knowing that Maura was right. Jane reacher her hand up and caught Maura's lone tear with the tip of her thumb before withdrawing her hands into her lap.

"Yeah, well, I was certainly judgemental of you the last few days," Jane chuckled. "I'm really sorry, Maura. I was just being stupid, I know that you don't care where people come from, but _they_ do. I could see it in their eyes, feel it in the way they spoke to me. I let my own self-doubt in other people's opinions of me affect how I treated you, just because you used to know them. I guess because they thought they were better than me I started to think that maybe you might think so too and that you might realize how amazing you are and stop being my friend and I… I really like being your friend, Maur... I am a huge ass. Can you forgive me?" Jane looked nervous. Maura smiled slyly and came up with the terms of their next agreement.

"Only if you drink my glass of wine." She decided, laughing at the panicked look on Jane's face.

"Oh, and you're gonna drink my beer?" Jane looked at the ME as if it were an absurd notion.

"Yes, I suppose. I don't really think that I like beer though." Maura looked disappointed, not realizing she had played herself as well as Jane.

"That's 'cause you've never had _my _beer." Jane smiled and switched their glasses.

Maura lifted the bottle and clinked it with the wine glass Jane was now holding. Each woman carefully put their lips to their glasses and in unison, their eyes grew in surprise at what they were tasting.

"Damn, that's pretty good," Jane said before she smiled. "Cabernet, right? It's kind of... Chalky." Jane grinned over at her friend knowing that Maura would find her comments entertaining.

"Mmm, this is delicious!" Maura exclaimed in surprise at the beer. She took another sip before she looked at Jane's smirking face. "Chalky? Why, Detective, I had no idea you were such a connoisseur of the beverage."

Each woman laughed at the other's remarks and they knew that all was forgiven. They would always push each other. Sometimes it would be as easy as eating a powdered donut and other times, like with the Fairfield case, it would be difficult, but as they enjoyed the rest of the evening with each other, both women knew that they would always come back to each other no matter how far they pushed. They each needed the other to keep them steady as they grew.

Jane eventually suggested that they drive home, and offered to drop Maura off at her house seeing as the ME had left her car at work. They could carpool in the morning, as they did with growing frequency. They drove in relative silence, both at ease, no longer needing to talk about the rollercoaster of a case they had just solved. Jane got to the Beacon Hill home in record time and was ready to watch Maura unbuckle and wave from her house door as she always did when she dropped Maura off at home, but the ME had other ideas.

"Would you like to come in?" She asked as she undid her seatbelt and turned to look at the Detective. Jane blinked back at the ME a couple of times before she responded.

"In? To your house? I dunno, Maura, it's getting pretty late and I'm already tired." Jane scratched the back of her head looking nervous.

"Exactly," Maura explained. "I'd certainly feel much safer if I knew you didn't have to drive anywhere else tonight. You can use my guest bedroom." Maura grinned at Jane, and the Detective knew that she could never deny that particular look. It was a look that Maura seemed to reserve only for Jane, and the Detective relished in it.

"Yeah, alright, you win," the brunette rolled her eyes with a sigh, turned her car off and unclicked her seatbelt. "I don't have any pajamas, Maur." she complained to her companion.

"I'm sure I can find something suitable," the ME got out of the car and walked to the front door, sure that Jane would follow.

* * *

**Y'all ready for a sleepover or what? **


	9. Chapter 9

**What can I say? I'm a sucker for fluff and slow-burn Rizzles. **

* * *

Maura unlocked the door to her house and turned to be sure that Jane was going to enter. She smiled at the Detective who dragged her feet through the threshold. Maura took off her coat and hung it in the closet, holding her hand out for Jane's jacket.

"I can do it myself, you know." Jane snarked jokingly as the ME reached her hands to the Detectives back to help her out of her coat.

"I know," Maura admitted as she turned to hang the coat next to her own before Jane could see her blush. Maura had appreciated all of the brunette's chivalrous gestures and was determined to pay them back. "The living room is right through here, you may help yourself to anything in the kitchen. There's a guest washroom down that hallway and your bedroom - the guest room that is - is upstairs next to mine." The ME smiled up expectantly at Jane who eyed Maura's very large and lavish home.

"Alright," Jane nodded but seemed unsure before her eyes settled in the living room. "I know where I'm stopping first." She grinned down at Maura and wiggled her eyebrows. She walked towards the living room and plopped herself down on the couch as if she'd been doing it for years. She kicked her feet up onto the coffee table and let out a content sigh. Maura laughed at her friend and followed her into the living room to stand so she could still see Jane's face.

"I'm glad you're so comfortable," Maura stated in an amused tone, though it was the truth. "I'm going to go up to shower, then you can use the washroom if you wish. Would you like me to get you anything before I go?" She really wanted Jane to remain comfortable.

"Nah, I'm good." Jane closed her eyes and smiled contently. "Thank you, though." Maura rolled her eyes and made her way upstairs to the bathroom attached to her bedroom.

She brushed her teeth and turned the shower on. She carefully brushed her hair as the water heated up. She got her towels ready before she undressed and stepped under the warm spray. The heat of the water washed all remaining stress from her passed case away and the thought of her best friend being only a few meters away put Maura in a pleasant mood. She was quicker than usual in her excitement to get back downstairs to Jane. She dried herself off and wrapped a towel around her hair and then her body before she left to go to her closet.

She chose one of her more comfortable silk nightgowns and dressed quickly. The air was especially cold in comparison to the warmth of her shower and she was eager to cover her skin. She gazed into her pajama drawer and tried to decide what outfit Jane might enjoy the most. She had to laugh out loud at the thought of Jane wearing any of the silky or lace materials. She decided to forgo actual pajamas altogether and instead opened the drawer that housed her workout gear. She chose a pair of her college sweatshorts and a sweater Susie had gifted her with the phrase 'Proud Leader of the B.P.D's GEEK SQUAD' written across the chest. Maura smiled at her choice of attire and placed her towels on hooks to dry before heading back down to the living room.

"Would you like to shower too, or did you want to just change and go to bed?" Maura asked as she walked down the stairs and back towards the couch. "I found these for you. The shorts will probably fit, your hips are so small, and the sweater is too big for me so-" Maura stopped talking. Jane had stood up from the couch at the sound of Maura approaching and was now staring down at Maura's chosen attire, seemingly in disbelief.

If Jane hadn't been so busy looking over Maura's outfit, she might have seen the Doctor glance down quickly do to an appraisal of her own. Maura was quicker to look away, however and grinned further still at how the Detective seemed to be unable to tear her gaze away. Maura felt her body begin to warm under Jane's eyes. The spell was broken by Jane's brash tone.

"Why do you always look like you're about to do a photoshoot?" Jane seemed offended at the idea.

"Jane, it's a nightgown." Maura admonished. "It's hardly a suitable piece of clothing for any prominent fashion magazine." Jane looked at her and rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't talking about the nightgown, Maura," Jane stated as if it should have been obvious. Maura blushed and grinned at Jane, who was also rather pink from hearing her own words. "I'll take the clothes, please. I showered at my place this morning." Jane reached out to take the clothes but was now avoiding Maura's eyes.

_Interesting_, The Doctor thought. _I definitely picked the right pajamas._ Maura handed the clothes over and explained where Jane could find extra toothbrushes and other supplies. Jane left as quickly as her legs would allow and took a rather long time to change.

Maura sat on one of the stools at her kitchen island and tried to read one of the many medical journals she had on her tablet. She was still blushing at Jane's compliment and was in slight disbelief that Jane might find her attractive at all, let alone with no makeup and damp hair in a simple silk nightie. She looked up and smiled widely when Jane finally came out of the washroom, clearly displeased with the clothing.

"Geek Squad Leader? Really, Maura?" Jane pointed to the sweater she was now wearing, feigning annoyance. Maura tried not to glance down at her friend's long, muscular legs and chuckled at the look on Jane's face instead.

"Would you have preferred one of these?" Maura asked. She raised an eyebrow and gestured to her own apparel, though already knowing the answer.

"Hmph." Jane rolled her eyes before she headed back to the couch to sit down again. "Bet you think you're _real _funny." She complained. Maura took a minute to simply look at the woman who was facing away from her, sitting on the couch. It was hard for her to believe that she'd walked into this room only a few days before, longing for somebody to sit where Jane was now sitting. Maura had purchased that couch because it would fit nicely with the rest of her decorations, but she had only sat on it once before she bought it, and once after it was placed where it was now, so she could be sure that people who used it would find the view aesthetically pleasing. Since then it had remained largely ignored, but Jane looked so at ease on it that Maura could scarcely picture the piece of furniture without the cranky Detective in it. She moved to join Jane on the couch, copying the position the Detective had assumed. The women sat, shoulder to shoulder with their heads resting on the back of the couch, their feet up on the coffee table and their eyes closed. Their hips and thighs brushed against each other firmly as Maura sat down. Jane peeked with one eye open.

"Are we going to have a sleepover down here or is this your way of telling me you're attracted to me?" She stared at Maura with one eye open and the ME laughed, looking back into Jane's face. She purposely did not confirm or deny. Jane was sure to notice any hives that might appear in her current outfit.

"I simply wanted to join you, Jane." That was the truth. "I don't usually sit here when I'm at home." Also not a lie.

"Maura, this is _the_ most comfortable couch I have ever been on. Probably in the whole world. It's better than my bed!" Jane looked at Maura in surprise. "What do you normally do at home if you're not stuck to this amazing couch?" Jane seemed to honestly want to know.

"Paperwork in my office. I read at the island in the kitchen a lot. I do yoga in my fitness room." Maura shrugged. "I'll usually watch documentaries on my laptop if I feel so inclined. I don't even have a television in here so there's not much use sitting here unless I have to entertain, which I haven't yet."

"Fitness room? You don't have a T.V. but you've got a fitness room. That's the most _you_ thing I've ever heard." Jane poked Maura in the ribs eliciting a delightful giggle from the smaller woman.

"I haven't decided if it's necessary to own one yet." Maura defended herself. "I haven't had the chance to properly analyze the effects of owning a television and I'm not sure where I would put it without having to completely redecorate the living room," Maura explained through a smile.

"You just put it. You plug it in and you sit on your magic couch, and you watch the rectangle. That's all there is to it." Jane explained and used her hands to accentuate her meaning. Her voice was getting raspier and quieter.

"I'll get one if you start coming over." Maura reasoned.

"If it means I get to sit here, I'll come over every damn day." Jane grinned back at her friend. "I'm tired, Maur. Show me where I can sleep?"

"Of course." Maura nodded, standing up and reaching a hand out to help Jane up off the couch. The Detective took it and dramatically groaned as she hauled herself up and out of her seat, then she bowed deeply to Maura.

"Thank you, my Lady." She joked to Maura, who rolled her eyes and walked towards the stairs.

"Come on." Maura led the way to the room across the hall from her bedroom. She entered the room and removed the decorative pillows and placed them on a chair in the corner. Jane watched while Maura made the room satisfactory. "Feel free to help yourself to anything. Wake me if you need to." The ME smiled and moved to exit the room, but Jane grabbed her upper arm to stop her. The Detective then moved in front of the smaller woman and pulled her into a hug.

Jane was surprisingly gentle in her embrace, and Maura stood, shocked, only for a second before she wrapped her own arms around Jane's waist. Jane started to twist them slightly back and forth and they stood there swaying, both thinking about how well they fit together for a few moments. Maura listened to the steady heartbeat below her ear and closed her eyes. She decided she loved the sound. Jane rested her chin on Maura's head and inhaled the scent of her friend's shampoo. She decided she loved the smell. Neither woman wanted to let go.

"Goodnight, Maur." Jane husked as she loosened her arms. Maura sighed and looked up into Jane's face and smiled at her for the final time that day.

"Goodnight, Jane," She whispered and released her friend's hips and left the room, leaving the door open behind her and walking into her own bedroom. She left that door open too, feeling like their connection wasn't lost as long as there weren't any physical barriers between them. Maura was quite sure that the smile didn't fade from her face even after she'd fallen asleep. She dreamed, as she often did, of Jane's kind eyes but this time there was no fear in them. Jane was just smiling down at Maura in this dream, and the ME didn't wake until several hours later when she heard Jane's labored breathing filling the silence of the house. She assumed the Detective was suffering from a nightmare and went to wake her friend from the terrors her mind was creating.

* * *

_Jane grabbed Maura by her upper arm and stopped the smaller woman from leaving the room. The blonde turned around and looked up into Jane's face questioningly. Jane pulled the ME close to her own body and reached up to tuck a strand of soft hair behind her friend's ear before she cupped the blonde's cheek and gently caressed the skin beneath her fingers. Maura blushed at Jane's actions but did not pull away. The Detective saw only trust and longing in the Doctor's hazel eyes. _

"_Jane," Maura breathed the name out almost soundlessly. It was a pleading name this time, laced with desire directed toward the Detective. Maura placed her own hands on Jane's hips and lifted up the sweater to feel the olive skin beneath it. Jane shuddered as her friend's fingers slowly made their way up her torso, caressing her skin and removing the article of clothing as they traveled. They let the sweater fall to the floor and Maura's hands fell to Jane's shoulders. Without breaking eye contact, Jane felt the ME drag her hands down her chest, grazing her breasts and continuing down over her abdominal muscles to pause at the waistband of her shorts. _

_Jane moved her own hands into Maura's hair and pulled the ME's mouth very slowly to her own. _

"_Jane," Maura pleaded with her again, craving contact. Jane closed the distance between them and captured Maura's plump lips with her own. Jane felt Maura's tongue drag gently across her bottom lip and allowed the other woman access. Their kiss was slow and passion-filled. Each woman seemingly had the desire to take her time to enjoy it. She felt Maura's body shudder as her hands made fists in the blonde's hair. Jane sighed into the kiss and lowered her hands from Maura's head, slowly down to the hem of her small, silk nightgown. The detective began to lift the soft garment and heard a small moan escape Maura's lips in between kisses. Maura moved her own hands around Jane's waist and up her back, entangling her fingers in Jane's wild, raven-coloured curls. _

"Jane?" Her name was called again. _How is she calling my name if she's kissing me?_ Jane thought, confused. _Wait, why is she kissing me? Why am I kissing Maura? _

Jane opened her eyes and blinked up at the form that was sitting next to her on the bed. She immediately stiffened and pulled away.

"Jane, it's okay. It's just me, it's Maura," The blonde whispered into the darkness. Jane could see the outlines of everything but very little detail.

"Maur?" Jane asked, still half asleep. "Whereami?" the Detective's cognitive function was decreased due to her dream and her sleepiness. Maura chuckled at the slurred speech.

"You're in my guest room." She explained patiently. "I asked you not to drive home because you seemed tired, and you agreed to stay over, do you remember?" As Jane heard the words, she could recall the events of the night. She and Maura had switched beverages at a restaurant, they had eaten mediocre food and then talked for a while. She'd agreed to stay over. She remembered being breathless as Maura had descended the stairs in her silk nightie, and embarrassed at openly starring. Her hands flew to her own body as she remembered her dream, and she was glad to feel that she was still wearing all of her clothing. "You're safe, Jane," Maura told her.

_She must think I had a nightmare. _Jane realized. "I'm safe," she repeated to Maura before she relaxed into the mattress below her. She breathed deeply, willing the arousal from her dream to ease away from her.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Maura whispered kindly. Jane did want her to stay but felt guilty. Maura might not want to stay if she was aware of the dream Jane had just had about her. It didn't necessarily have to mean anything though, maybe the Detective was just tired, and lonely and in need of getting laid, so her mind had created a scenario to appease all of her desires with one person. Still, though, Jane was always respectful of other people's boundaries.

"Do you want to stay?" She asked the ME. There was hardly enough time for a breath before Maura responded.

"Yes." She admitted, and Jane could feel the uncertainty in her friend, even if she couldn't really see her. Jane lifted the blankets up and scooted over to give Maura room.

"Then yes."

Maura crawled under the covers offered to her and turned to face Jane. They both lay in the darkness trying to make out the others face with no success.

"Jane?" Maura broke the silence.

"Yeah, Maur?" The brunette whispered back.

"Are you alright?" concern was evident in her quiet hush. Jane wasn't sure about how she was feeling and decided to reply honestly.

"I don't know." Jane rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, trying to block out the confusion that was building within her. She felt Maura's hand on her shoulder, where it squeezed once before it made its way down Jane's arm and into her hand. She allowed Maura to lace their fingers together and felt another squeeze. Silence followed and no other words were spoken. Jane eventually heard her friend's breathing level out, and the quiet, even breaths eased her back into a peaceful, dreamless sleep. It was the first night since she'd been rescued from Hoyt's basement that she didn't have any nightmares.

* * *

Jane woke slowly the following morning. She stretched in between the softest sheets she'd ever used and didn't want to leave the comfort of the soft, warm bed. She heard a slight snore beside her and opened her eyes. Jane was still laying on her back, but at some point during the night, Maura must have rolled onto her stomach. The blonde had an arm draped across Jane's stomach, and before the Detective realized what she was doing, she'd reached up to place her own hand on to of Maura's which was resting on Jane's ribs.

She looked into Maura's face and, though she could scarcely see in the dim light of the dawn, she admired her friend's peaceful, relaxed features. Maura's hair was falling into her face slightly so the Detective reached over to tuck it behind the ME's ear. She was reminded of how she had dreamed of doing so the night before, and the rest of the dream washed over her like a tidal wave. Jane's body stiffened. The intimacy of the position they were in made her feel like she could be taking advantage of her friend, so she carefully removed Maura's hand from her stomach, and slowly eased herself from the bed. The ME grumbled slightly but continued her even breathing quickly. Jane made her way back downstairs and sat on the couch. She had left her phone on the coffee table the night before and checked the time. 4:17 AM.

Jane found herself toying with the idea of telling Maura about her dream. She felt like she owed it to her friend to give her all of the information. Jane felt like not telling Maura about it might make her a bad person somehow. She rubbed her face with her hands and groaned in frustration. She wasn't entirely certain that her dream really meant anything, so she thought through the possible risks of informing the ME. What if it affected their work negatively? What if Maura didn't feel comfortable around her anymore and their job suffered? What if Jane's dream ruined the best friendship either of them had ever had?

While Jane thought over her emotions she realized something important. Much like their workplace relationship, although there was an insurmountable pile of reasons it shouldn't work, it did. Jane grinned through all of the reasons she shouldn't disclose her dream to the ME and took a deep breath when she decided that, like their work dynamic, the negatives were far less valuable to her than the positive, which would always be respecting Maura. The Doctor might even have some sort of study to explain why Jane had dreamed of what she had.

The detective stood up, content with her decision, and ambled over to the kitchen. It was time for coffee.

* * *

When Maura woke, she panicked slightly when she'd reached out for Jane only to feel cool sheets where her friend should have been. Her eyes opened instinctively, searching, but the Detective was no longer in the room. She calmed when she heard a clanging sound from downstairs and a small string of Italian cuss words. Maura grinned. She got out of bed and completed her daily morning stretches before she made her way to her own room to get her housecoat. She tied the garment as she walked down the stairs, and found Jane in the kitchen, glaring at the coffee maker. She admired the detectives long, bare legs before looking up and grinning at the wild mane of curls that had overtaken Jane's head.

"Maura, why do you have the Jetson's coffee maker?" Jane complained as she heard her friend approach. "This is way too complicated for the morning. We're crime solvers, Maur, we're supposed to get coffee _before_ we have to solve things and this thing is a mystery if I've _ever_ seen one." Jane gestured to the coffee maker and pouted. Maura chuckled as she moved beside her friend to show her how it worked. She instructed Jane to get the coffee from the pantry while she filled the machine with enough water for two (the first time she's ever needed to). She pointed to the appropriate buttons but made Jane press them instead so that her friend could learn. She smiled at Jane and bumped her hip with her own before she moved to get mugs, sugar, and creamer.

"What is a Jetson's coffee maker?" Maura asked as the machine sputtered to life and the smell of coffee filled the kitchen. "This is a De'Longhi, rated very positively. Is a Jetson's higher quality?" She looked up at Jane and the Detective laughed. "Are you making fun of me?" Maura asked with a pout of her own, which caused Jane to laugh more.

"No, I'm sorry, I promise I'm not," Jane explained through a grin. "It's a kid's T.V. show, Maur, The Jetson's, I mean. It's about a family of four living in the future. They have flying cars and a robot maid. They'd probably have a coffee maker like this one." Jane pointed to the machine and watched as Maura seemed to understand. "You didn't watch many cartoons, huh?" Jane smiled.

"Not really, no." Maura started to put her desired amount of sugar in her mug before handing the jar and spoon to Jane, who did the same. Maura yawned and stared at the machine as if she was willing it to hurry up. Jane was highly entertained by the dissatisfaction of her normally patient friend. Finally, their mugs were full of the hot, dark liquid, and they finished making it the way they liked before sitting down at the island. "Would you like to discuss your nightmare?" Maura asked the last question Jane wanted to hear.

"First coffee, then talk," Jane grumbled as she lifted her mug to her lips, inhaling through her nose before taking a sip. "Damn, that's good." Maura did not like that plan of action.

"Jane, avoiding talking about them won't help-" Maura began to chastise her friend.

"I'm not avoiding, I'm just… Thinking of what I should say," Jane explained to her friend, patiently.

"Many people who have experienced trauma suffer from nightmares, it's a sign of PTSD. I could likely help-"

"It wasn't a nightmare, Maura." Jane tossed out, raking her hand through her very messy hair.

"It wasn't a nightmare?" Maura took a contemplative sip from her own coffee before she began to think out loud. "You were sleeping, and your breathing was labored, and you were moving, all telltale signs of a nightmare, or of a - _OH!_" Maura scienced her way to the truth. "You had a sex dream!" Maura pointed to Jane, who dropped her head into her hand at her friend's obvious amusement.

"Oh my _God_, I shouldn't have said anything." She rubbed the bridge of her nose before looking back into Maura's entertained face. "Any chance you're gonna drop this?" Maura shook her head in the negative, still grinning. "Didn't think so." Jane sighed.

"Who was it about? Were they good? What were you doing?" Maura rapid fired questions to her friend, happy to be the one with the opportunity to tease for once. Jane groaned and looked up at the ceiling, contemplating how she might tell Maura that she had dreamed about her.

"Uhh, well, we - me and the person - were in your guest bedroom and they took off my sweater and then they kissed me." Jane blushed, looking into her coffee refusing to make eye contact.

"And then?" Maura prompted, very interested in the rest.

"That's pretty much it, Maura." Jane glanced at her friend who did not seem content with the information.

"That hardly constitutes a sex dream, Jane, you just kissed." Maura scoffed and looked expectantly at Jane, who bought some time by taking slow sips from her mug.

"Sure _felt _like a sex dream," she muttered, blushing deeper still.

"Who was it about, Jane?" Maura asked again, poking her friend in the shoulder. Jane sighed and rolled her eyes but didn't answer. "Was it about Detective Frost?" Maura laughed at the disgusted look of Jane's face.

"Ew, _no! _He's like a brother to me, God, _gross_. That would be like kissing Frankie, _UGH_," Jane rubbed her face again. "It was about… Uh, it was about you." Jane scrunched up her face and looked at Maura through one open eye.

"Oh, okay." Maura nodded her understanding. "Was I any good?" She asked with a smile.

"You're not… I dunno, weirded out or whatever?" Jane asked, surprised at her friends calm. Maura laughed and wrapped her hands around her coffee mug.

"No, Jane, of course not. The human mind is many things that we simply do not yet understand, and dreams rarely have any kind of valuable meaning." Maura was casual in her tone as she continued. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's actually rather normal. During REM sleep the dopaminergic systems are heightened and the prefrontal regulatory systems are weakened." She explained, as though it would clear Jane's confusion.

"You wanna translate that to English?" Jane joked, nudging Maura with her elbow.

"Essentially, when we are in deep sleep, our libido can sometimes go into overdrive and we don't have the cognitive function to regulate who or what we dream about. Since sexual desires can't be acted on we hallucinate a scenario where we can be satisfied." Maura smiled over to Jane who now seemed to understand, though still looked worried. "It's entirely plausible that you dreamed of me simply because your subconscious remained aware that you were in my house." Jane seemed satisfied, so Maura wanted to continue her teasing. "So… Was I any good?" She repeated.

"_Oh_ my God." Jane stood up and brought her empty mug to the sink, shaking her head. Maura watched Jane shake her head and assumed the worst.

"Was I a terrible kisser?" She asked, offended at the possibility. Jane turned to look at her, disbelief written on her face.

"Of course not, Maura, you were… It was…" Jane glanced at the floor and her face turned red when she looked back up into Maura's waiting face. "It was nice." Jane turned around to rinse her mug when Maura seemed pleased with the update. The Detective's phone sounded off and Jane rushed for it, eager to get out of her current conversation. "Rizzoli." She answered into the cell. "Alright, hold the scene, we'll be there in about an hour." Jane paused to listen to the receiver before each response. "Yeah, I said 'we'...Uh, no. I can let her know… Yeah, I'm at her house… Frost, I swear to _God!..._ Just a question my _ass…_ Okay, later." She hung up the phone with a large eye roll. "We've got a case, Maur, we gotta go!" Jane rubbed her hands together, eager to get to work. She watched Maura glance longingly into her coffee and pout at the bowl of fruit that was on her counter. "We'll get brunch later, go get ready, Doctor Isles. Oh, hey, can I borrow a shirt?" Jane asked. The Detective regretted her question immediately when she saw a sly smirk appear on her friend's face.

* * *

**Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a tease. Stay tuned for more fluff, sexual tension, and teasing.**

**I promise you won't have to wait too much longer for hot and steamy sex, I'm just enjoying writing the build-up. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Yeah, yeah, I know. The 'I Kissed a Girl' ep. has been done to death but I couldn't help myself! I think I keep it fresh and add enough of my own stuff to keep this chapter interesting. I've got a lot of stuff coming soon that's not based on any of the episodes at all, so I guess we'll see how that goes. :)**

**As always, thank you all SO much for reviewing! **

* * *

Jane Rizzoli sat in her police cruiser looking down at her outfit in shame before she looked out of the windshield to the crime scene. She glanced at Maura, who was sitting in the passenger seat with a content smile on her face.

"Maura, I look stupid," Jane complained. "They're gonna make fun of me._ Why _are you laughing? Seriously Maur, do I look stupid?" Maura looked at Jane's face, amazed that her friend might feel anything but beautiful.

"Are you kidding?" She asked, her face sobering slightly. "Really, you don't know? You're _gorgeous_, my friend." Maura chuckled out before she shook her head and exited the vehicle.

"Then_ why_ are you laughing?" Jane shouted after her. She sighed and rolled her eyes at her flowing white blouse and bright yellow blazer combo. "She's insane," Jane muttered to herself alone in the car. "She's insane and now I have to solve a murder looking like a marshmallow peep." Jane groaned and exited the vehicle, glaring at every person who did a double-take, daring them to say something about her clothes. She donned on the required gloves and shoe covers before following her friend to the crime scene, glad she had decided to re-wear her charcoal pants, at least, instead of the skirt Maura had suggested. The blonde was speaking with Frost, who looked entirely too happy to be in a dumpster alley next to a corpse.

"I can't believe she got you to wear that." Jane heard Frost's joking tone and glared at Maura before she sassed her response.

"_No,_ it was my idea." Sarcasm rolled out of her as if she'd invented it. "I just _love_ dressing like a daisy bouquet." Jane rolled her eyes at her partner and Maura scoffed.

"Jane, I said you looked like a sunshine plumeria bouquet," Maura stated, evidently insulted. "Dolce and Gabanna deserve much better than being compared to such a commonplace flower," the ME grabbed the lapel of Jane's yellow blazer as if it would help make her point, but Jane quickly slapped Maura's hand away and pointed to her friend.

"_Not _helpful, Maura." She glared, all the while ignoring Frost's lame attempts at keeping his giggles to himself. "We're at a crime scene guys, huh? A little professionalism? Please?" Maura backed off and pulled a pair of blue gloves onto her hands before nodding and kneeling next to the body. Frost cleared his throat, always eager to watch the two women work their magic. He learned a great deal at every crime scene and was even getting better at holding his stomach. "Looks like she was dragged here." Jane began her assessment of the scene while Frost took notes vigorously. "Wallet and credit cards left at the scene along with her money. Alright, so we can scratch robbery…" Jane glanced around the scene and then back to the head wound of the victim. "Did we find what was used to beat her?" She asked Frost who shook his head in response. She glanced around the crime scene as her mind began to develop theories for what happened to the woman who was now dead in a pile of garbage bags. Maura interrupted her thought process.

"She was diabetic, Jane, look." The ME pointed to what Jane had assumed was a pager. "She has a glucose management system and needle pricks on her fingers. I found this book too, she kept very careful records. Her last glucose level reading was over four hundred…" The ME looked at Jane as if the information was very useful, but the Detective had no idea what it meant.

"Is that good or bad?" Frost interrupted, glancing up from his notes.

"Well, it's extremely high," Maura explained, looking back to Jane who still didn't understand.

"Yeah, is that good or bad?" The brunette asked, amused. Maura shook her head.

"It's bad, she wasn't getting any insulin which would have cause slurred speech and reduction in movement. It could explain why there aren't any defensive wounds. With victims like this one, evidence of sexual assault and a frontal head injury, I usually see evidence of the victim fighting back." Maura looked into the dead woman's face.

"So she couldn't fight back," Jane muttered. Thinking out loud helped her. She turned to speak to Frost. "The murder weapon has a rectangular edge by the look of that head lac… Frost, we're looking for a two by four." Her partner immediately started to search the area.

"I can't confirm that!" Maura objected, being silenced quickly as Frost held a bloody two by four in the air. The ME grumbled her annoyance at Jane's hunch being correct. Maura was a fan of science and disliked when Jane could seemingly summon proof through sheer force of will.

"Guess we're looking for an idiot." Jane joked, shaking her head at the piece of wood. "What kind of moron leaves the weapon four feet away from the body? Probably a crime of passion if they were that stupid."

"Does that mean we're going to be questioning her spouse?" Frost asked his partner, who nodded. "Damn, why does our first suspect always gotta be the spouse?" He paused at the annoyed look of Jane's face. "If you're getting ready for an 'I hate men speech' you can save it, Jane, because she didn't even _have_ a husband!" Frost defended his gender.

"Well, her ring says otherwise," Jane pointed to the gold band that was stained in blood.

"Jane," Maura interrupted the bickering partners. "He's right. She didn't have a_ husband_." Maura handed a pink tablet she'd found over to her friend, who glanced down at it to see a photo of two women holding hands on their wedding day. Jane glanced at Frost, who held his hands up in surrender.

"You gonna get ready for an 'I hate _women_' speech?" Jane nudged her partner with her elbow to let him know it was a joke. He scoffed at her and shook his head.

"Not in a million years." He stated before he turned to hand the wooden beam and the tablet to Maura's Geek Squad.

* * *

When all evidence was gathered, the running idea was that a woman had murdered the victim, reason unknown, and then staged the body to look like she had been attacked and raped at the scene. The only clue the team had to go on was the bar stamp Maura had found on the victim's hand. Jane and Frost partnered up to go and question the club owner. Jane let him drive.

"So, you gonna freak out at me again if I ask you if you stayed at Maura's place last night?" Frost asked Jane as they got situated in Jane's police cruiser. She rolled her eyes at him but smiled, shaking her head in the negative. "You're really not gonna tell me what happened?" He pushed.

"Nothing_ happened, Barold_." Jane snarked back. "We went to get drinks after the case yesterday because she was upset… And I guess I was also in a bad mood, and then by the time I drove her home she thought it would be safer if I just slept in her guest bedroom." Jane explained as her partner started the car and began to make his way towards their destination.

"So you slept in her guest bedroom." He reiterated. "And Maura slept…?" He got the answer he was looking for when Jane blushed. "Oh shit, you guys literally slept together?" He sounded surprised.

"No!" Jane shot back. "I mean yeah, we _literally_ slept together, but that was it. I guess she heard me having a… a dream at some point from across the hall, so she came over to make sure I was alright, then she just…" Jane shrugged as if she didn't understand Maura's actions. "She just stayed with me after that so I would feel safe." Jane glanced down to the raised pink scars on the back of her hands. They didn't bother her so much anymore.

"Huh," Frost said, looking out the windshield. Jane didn't like the sound.

"Huh, _what_, Frost?" She asked in annoyance.

"Nothing, I just don't understand you two." He shrugged as he pulled into a parking space. "You guys are so different, but also exactly alike in so many ways. She's all classy and scientific and ladylike and you're, well… you." He paused to chuckle at her offended face. "What I mean to say is that you're kind of her opposite in those ways. Science versus senses, you know? But at your cores, you guys are like the same person. Like, you both care about people more than you care about yourselves. You're both so passionate about your jobs that it's borderline obsessive. Neither of you will stop digging until you get to the bottom of things. You're both stubborn in your ways, but also open to each other's perspective because it's in both of your natures to be able to see things from many points of view. I've just never known anyone who acts the way you two do, _especially _around each other. I don't understand it." He repeated himself with another shrug.

"Yeah," Jane agreed, unclicking her seatbelt. "I don't understand it either. You think I would have let anyone else put me in this?" Jane asked and she pointed to her sunshine yellow blazer. Frost laughed "It's not funny, Frost, I look like a marshmallow peep!" She threw an empty, balled up fast food bag at him

"No!" He shouted as he caught the bag. "You don't Jane, you look nice," he stated as he blocked more projectiles. "You look nice, Jane!" He laughed. "It's just weird to see you not looking like you woke up under a bridge!" He shouted through his laughter and Jane, finally having had enough, removed herself from the vehicle and raked a hand through her hair as she slammed the door behind her.

"I hate you, you know that right?" She asked her partner when he followed her away from the car.

"Nah," He denied immediately, gently pushing her shoulder. "I put up with too much of your shit for you to hate me." He grinned over at her and fixed his tie. They both knew he was right so she simply rolled her eyes and pushed him back.

They questioned the lesbian club, Merch's, owner and her bouncers but left with only an anti-lesbianism pamphlet. Something in Jane's gut told her that it wasn't a hate crime but they had to follow every lead possible.

* * *

Maura found Jane, Frost, and Korsak in the bullpen later that afternoon. She watched Jane's movements and quickly analyzed her body language: frustration.

"You didn't have any luck questioning suspects, did you?" Maura asked the group. Jane groaned and rubbed her face with her hands.

"No, just got proof our vic was meeting up with dates at that lesbian bar," Jane stated in a defeated tone. "You got any science to tell us?" The Detective asked.

Jane stared at Maura's lips as the ME began effortlessly spilling out a long string of complicated words, not hearing any of them. She had always found Maura's scientific rambling endearing. Jane began to sigh but she shook herself when she became aware of Frost studying her. She cleared her throat, interrupting her friend.

"You wanna use English, Doctor Isles?" Jane grinned at her friend so the joke would be well received. Maura scowled at her but then grinned back.

"I found deer skin fibers from work gloves on the two by four. I also confirmed your theory that the attacker was female. There was likely a tear in one of the gloves, leaving sweat on the wood." Maura stated simply. Generally, the ME would help the team come up with theories based on the new evidence, but she just stood, watching Jane.

"...Is there anything else?" Jane eyed Maura nervously, noticing that her friend's hands were clasped behind her back for the duration of their conversation so far.

"I brought this for you." Maura handed Jane a singular white and yellow flower and the Detective tried not to blush as she looked at Korsak's confused face and Frost's grinning one. "It's a sunshine plumeria, I wanted you to see for yourself how beautiful I think you look in that outfit." Maura smiled, seemingly unashamed and unembarrassed at her own words.

"Uhh, thanks... I'll put it right here next to the gifts from my many other suitors," Jane took the flower and indicated to her very empty desk before she placed the lone flower down. Frost and Korsak chuckled at her antics.

"Suitors?" Maura asked curiously. "Do tell." She leaned against Jane's desk waiting.

"It was a joke, Maur, I don't _have_ any suitors," Jane explained to her friend, still very much embarrassed.

"Oh, I don't know, Jane," Frost shrugged and grinned at her. "The owner of Merch seemed to be _very _happy to help you if you needed her for… _anything." _He and Korsak laughed at the suggestion. Jane rolled her eyes.

"Too bad she's not my type, huh?" Jane grumbled.

"What?" Frost kept badgering. "Short, hot blondes are not your thing? Or are you exclusively into men?" Jane blushed deeply as she glanced over to an intrigued looking medical examiner. "You sure seemed to be her type." Frost continued, letting out a low whistle as if to prove his point.

"You know…" Korsak joined in. "We might be able to use that to our advantage, Janie." Jane didn't like the tone he was using.

"Why? What do you mean?" She asked as if she were dreading the answer already.

"Well, " Korsak explained, pointedly looking to Frost to be sure the other man would choose his side. "You kinda… Resemble the vic. And the club owner likes you." Korsak shrugged. "It would be a shame to waste an opportunity like that." Jane started sputtering in denial of the plan her Sargent was constructing, but her partner spoke over her.

"Yeah!" Frost claimed in excitement, "We could try to bait a trap!" He was glad to experience the new opportunity of undercover work, having never worked that field before. "It would be easy to arrange dates, get DNA-"

"How, Frost? You want me to stab them with my drink umbrella?" Jane snarked. The team turned to Maura, who interrupted their fighting.

"I could help," the ME smiled. "I know the layout of the building already and I'm trained to properly collect and preserve DNA. You'd simply need to offer to buy them a drink and then I'd dress like a waitress and come along to pick it up." She explained.

"You know the layout, huh?" Frost asked the ME with a raised eyebrow then discreetly winked at Jane, who scowled.

"Yes, I've been there several times," Maura stated cavalierly. Jane scoffed.

"What, for more undercover sting operations?" The brunette joked, shaking her head in disbelief. The ME laughed.

"No, for dates, Jane." Maura turned to the men of the group to continue planning while the Detective quieted in surprise.

_Okay, so she is into women. _Jane thought. She didn't like the thought of Maura kissing another woman. She didn't like the thought of Maura kissing _anyone_ for that matter. _Just because she's into women doesn't mean she's into me. I don't even know if I like women, why am I so upset about this? _Jane started to absentmindedly twist her hair around her fingers as she processed the fact that her best friend was attracted to the same sex. Jane thought that this case might help her to figure out if she was also interested in women, so with that in mind, she moved to help the rest of the group with the plan.

Jane stared at Frost's computer screen in shock and rage as her friends decided what kind of lesbian she should go undercover as. Maura seemed to be way too pleased and enjoyed being the leader of their profile selections.

"I am _not _butch! I can't believe you guys are giving me a profile on a gay dating website." Jane eventually started her complaints.

"It's our best shot at getting DNA to break the case," Maura reasoned. "And I'm having fun." She continued with an excited smile. "I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses, Jane, you're..." Maura gestured to Jane's body as if her meaning was obvious, Frost and Korsak turned to appraise Jane.

"Why would I get responses?" Jane pointed to herself. "Because I would be_ 'the guy'_?" She rolled her eyes and used air quotes. Maura looked offended.

"That's such a cliche, Jane." She scolded. "There is no _guy, _that's kind of the point… and why would_ you_ be the guy?" Maura stared at her friend in confusion as the guys pretended the hilarious argument wasn't happening.

"Because…" Jane pointed to herself as if her very being were the answer. Maura decided to finish the sentence for her friend.

"... Because you're bossy." She looked pointedly at Jane. Jane smirked at the ME.

"So are_ you_," Jane stated amusedly. Maura squinted and shook her head to disagree so Jane continued. "Yes you are, you're just soft and polite when you're bossing people around."

"Well, it's a good thing then, that we're not each other's type," Maura stated, proud of the clever way she'd phrased it. She hadn't admitted that Jane _was_ her type, and she got to continue Frost's earlier line of questioning, but Jane didn't play along.

"What do you mean, I'm not your type?" Jane asked, mock offended. "Maura, that is _so _rude!" The ME laughed at her friend and shook her head.

"Jane, you're so defensive." Maura chuckled at her friend. "And you don't care if you're wearing the same pants as you were yesterday, and you just admitted that you're bossy." The Doctor continued to joke with the Detective.

"Oh yeah,_ I'm _bossy…" Sarcasm leaked out of Jane. "You guys are putting my profile on a gay dating website right now. After I said 'no' by the way. And now I get to go troll for dates with lesbian murderers… Yaaay" Jane rolled her eyes and looked pleased with the glance of annoyance she'd earned from Maura.

"Look!" Maura exclaimed, "You've already got some ladies looking to hook into you!" Maura smiled at the screen.

"What? Maur, it's hook _up with_ you." Jane corrected, not looking to see who had responded to her ad. Jane was endlessly entertained with Maura's lack of knowledge when it came to commonplace colloquialisms when she seemed to know everything else.

"Oo!" Maura clapped her hands together and bounced in excitement. Jane thought it might be the most adorable thing she'd ever seen, but the mood was ruined when Maura continued to speak. "What are we going to dress you up in?" The ME had the same look on her face that she'd donned earlier that morning before she gave Jane her sunshine flower blazer.

"You," Jane began, pointing to her friend. "Are not helping."

"But Jane, you always dress like you…" Maura stopped herself from finishing her sentence.

"Yeah?" Jane glanced over, daring her friend to finish. "I think I'll be just fine, Maura, I've actually gone undercover before."

"It's okay," Maura raised her hands in defeat. "It's fine if you don't want my help. This morning was like dressing a squirmy_ six-year-old _anyway." She glanced back at the guys who stifled their laughter at Jane's glare. "Everything was too short, too itchy, '_I can't walk in that'." _Maura quoted Jane's words from the morning, and the Detective could tell that she'd hurt the ME's feelings.

"Oh, come on Maur, your clothes _are _nice… we all love that you're so into _fashion_, it's just not really needed for undercover." Jane shrugged apologetically to the other woman.

"It's not just _'fashion'_ to me, Jane," Maura explained, offended at her friend's tone, but Jane and her teammates stared confusedly at the ME. "I used to sit at the Musee D'orsay and just stare at it for hours! You know what I mean?" They didn't. Maura had never had so much trouble articulating her feelings to Jane before and felt like she was back in her boarding school being called Maura-the-bora-a. She didn't care if nobody else understood but she needed Jane to. She took a deep breath before finding more metaphors that were meaningful to her. "Haven't you ever tried to appreciate something… Eulers number "E", the beautiful equation that connects three constants of mathematics?" The three Detectives shook their heads and Maura's facial features twisted as if she'd been pained. She looked into Jane's kind eyes and then to the flower that was still sitting on the Detective's desk. She needed Jane to know that it wasn't about labels or money, that it was about the beauty of creation and giving. She simply _had_ to explain. "I am in _awe _of what human beings can do." She started and was emboldened at the look of admiration that was slowly spreading on Jane's face. "I am in_ awe _of the channel knit, hand stitching of this sweater. I am in_ awe _of the artisan that molded and shaped this shoe!" She removed one of her high heels and held it up for the detectives to see. "Do you get it, Jane?" She pleaded with her friend. "Do you understand being in _awe _of what another human can_ do?" _

"Yeah, Maur," Jane smiled at her friend, completely enamored with the passion-filled speech of the woman before her. "I think I'm starting to."

* * *

The next evening, the Detective and the Doctor walked into Merch before the bar opened to explain to the owner how their plan would work. After everything was clear, Jane was ready to get wired up.

"There's a changeroom back there." The owner pointed to a hallway behind the bar but Jane shrugged.

"I'm good, I can get ready right here." Jane turned from the owner and lifted the hem of the tank top she was wearing so Maura could help her get wired up. Maura's breath caught as her eyes landed on Jane's toned stomach and her fingers shook slightly as she taped the necessary cords in place. She did her best to ignore the owner's obvious flirting.

"Guys must eat you up," the other blonde woman basically purred at the Detective. Jane just scoffed in disbelief. Guys did nothing of the sort.

"Why would you say that?" The brunette asked, entertained. She was curious to know what women, what Maura, might find attractive about her.

"'Cause you're just like 'em." The owner eyed Jane's body unabashed and Maura had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from interrupting. "You're beautiful. Your great, muscular body... dominant energy… If you ever feel like getting a little adventurous…" The woman trailed off and lightly caressed along one of the wires taped to Jane's back. Maura's eyes zeroed in on the other woman's hand and she felt her stomach tighten in jealousy even though she had no right to feel that way. She was surprised by her response. The ME wasn't usually the jealous type but at that moment she felt a strange sense of protective ownership over Jane.

"Uh," Jane looked from the woman down to Maura who was adamantly focusing on securing the tape recorder to the Detectives back, and then back to the bar owner. "I uh... Already have someone I would call." Maura smirked at the words and her anger seeped out of her. She stood up and lowered Jane's shirt back down over her torso. Maura took a moment while she held onto Jane's shirt to simply stare up into her friend's eyes and wonder if Jane had been talking about her. The pair smiled at each other and it apparently took too long, because the club owner cleared her throat.

"It's time I go get changed," She chirped before the bar owner led her to where the uniforms were kept. Once near the room and out of earshot of the Detective, the other woman hesitated before leaving.

"Hey, listen..." The owner began, "I didn't know you two were together. I wouldn't have done that if I'd have known, I'm sorry." The woman rubbed the back of her neck and looked guiltily at Maura. Almost fearfully. The ME didn't know how to respond. She and Jane weren't together but to tell the club owner that fact seemed to be just as likely to give her hives as outright lying did.

"You're forgiven." Seemed like the safest response and once Maura saw what she'd be wearing, she was glad that she had told that small truth.

* * *

Jane waited patiently with her team in the surveillance van until the bar became crowded. She confidently strutted towards the bar and checked out the server in the mini skirt who was loading a tray of drinks. The woman was facing away from Jane but the Detective felt an immediate surge of... _something_.

_Maybe I might be able to sleep with women, _Jane thought, _as long as they look like that. _Jane kept walking toward the bar intending to pass the woman, but the server placed a hand on Jane's shoulder to stop her.

"Your table is ready, miss." Maura smiled up at Jane, clearly enjoying herself. The Detective looked over Maura's outfit and stopped breathing. The corset that the ME was wearing over the mini skirt was too tight and was pushing up the Doctor's already generous chest. Jane looked around the bar and then momentarily forgot that she was wearing a wire.

"Oh my God, Maura! Put this on!" Jane moved to take off her cardigan to cover her friend. The thought of anybody else looking at Maura when her body was on display in such a sexual way made Jane's insides fill with a seething heat. The ME was having none of it.

"No," Maura denied. "I'm undercover, follow me." With a shimmy of her shoulders and a grin to the Detective, Maura led Jane to a table. Jane heard Korsak through her earpiece. _'Wow, Doctor Isles is not very doctorly tonight.' _

"You keep talking like that, Korsak, and I'll tell the Captain you were checking out Maura's tits on the job," Jane growled low into the mic so that the Doctor wouldn't hear. '_I didn't mean anything by it, Janie, honest.' _She could hear Frost chuckling in the background. She rolled her eyes and sat. She was glad that the women she was going on fake dates with did most of the talking. She was incredibly distracted every time Maura walked up to the table to take their empty drinks away. It seemed to Jane that the ME would always lean in closer than necessary to grab her 'date's' glass, giving Jane an eyeful of her ample cleavage every time. The small blonde woman smelled amazing. With each glass taken by the ME, Jane's heart rate skyrocketed, and she felt her cheeks get more and more red. She was used to seeing Maura in heels, but when they were combined with fishnet stockings, a miniskirt, and a corset, Jane found that she could scarcely keep her eyes off her friend's body. She found she had to force herself repeatedly to pull her gaze away from Maura's chest. Maura's legs, hair, sultry grin, and vibrant green eyes. Jane honestly wasn't sure why any of her date's stayed. It took every ounce of self-control Jane had not to stand up and threaten every other woman in the bar who groped, eyed, flirted with or gave their number to the good Doctor. She was glad when the night was finally over, immediately taking off her cardigan and covering Maura's body with the long garment.

"Jane, what are you doing?" Maura admonished. "What if somebody sees your wires?" She pointed to the areas of Jane's shirt where the cords stuck out. Jane shook her head.

"I don't care, Maur, we already got all the DNA," Jane stated, looking around. "I don't want anybody else lookin' at you like - like -" Jane sputtered before she found the words. "You're not a piece of meat, you deserve respect, Maura, okay? And this outfit isn't exactly respectable." Jane pulled the cardigan closed around Maura's chest, holding her hands there until the ME rolled her eyes and took over.

"Jane, nudity is not something I'll ever be embarrassed about. It's nothing to be ashamed of, I quite like how I look in this actually," Maura argued, opening up the cardigan to check herself out. Jane groaned and covered her eyes and Maura rolled her own at Jane's prudish tendencies. At Jane's frustration, Maura held the shirt closed again as they walked through bodies towards the change room Maura had used earlier. "Embracing sex and sexuality is incredibly freeing. Also, it was nice to be desired by so many beautiful women." She smiled at Jane. "I haven't gone on a date since... Well, I had a lot of fun." The Detective rolled her eyes at her friend, annoyed at thinking of all the ladies that had flirted with the ME. "You don't think I looked nice?" Maura misunderstood and stopped walking. She looked hurt, so Jane turned around to face her.

"No, it's not that! You looked…" Jane glanced down to the fishnet stockings that were still in plain view and licked her lips, thinking about the rest of the uniform. "Uh, you look… Maura, I…" Jane swallowed and looked into Maura's eyes. The ME searched the brown eyes before her and saw the dark pupils expand in her friend's eyes. "You're the most beautiful person I've ever met, Maura Isles, inside and out, and I am in_ awe_ of you," Jane whispered, trying to speak quietly enough that her team couldn't hear her through the mic.

Maura searched Jane's face and found only truthful admiration there. The ME let go of the cardigan which made the front fall open again. She reached her hand up to touch the side of Jane's face, searching the deep brown eyes of her friend before she glanced down at Jane's lips. Maura dropped her hand and pulled Jane into a tight hug. The Doctor dared not speak as she was sure tears would spill out of her eyes if she tried. She held onto Jane, desperately trying to convey without words how much it had meant to have someone not only understand the words she had used but to take those words and direct them towards her in such a meaningful and beautiful way. Maura was sure in that moment that she loved Jane. She wanted nothing more than to reach up into Jane's unruly curls and pull her down into a searing kiss, but she settled for holding her instead. Maura closed her eyes to listen to Jane's rapid heartbeat and for once, she was too blissful to intake the evidence before her and come to a conclusion. Had Maura not been in such a state of elevated emotional bliss, she'd have recalled watching Jane's eyes dilate, she'd have coupled that with her friend's rapidly beating heart and she would have clued into the Detective's clear arousal. Instead, she stood unaware of Jane's attraction to her and fought hard to hide her own attraction to the brunette.

The Detective tried to control her breathing as she willed herself not to think about Maura's scarcely covered body pressed flush into her own. Jane closed her eyes to thoughts of lifting the ME's legs up and around her waist so she could be carried and pressed into whatever wall was closest. She longed to touch the curves of the other woman and pull her into a kiss that rivaled the one she'd dreamed about. Jane shivered at the thoughts running through her mind and the body that pressed into her. Maura misread the action and assumed Jane was cold.

"Would you like your cardigan back, Jane?" Maura whispered innocently. Jane pulled herself out of her thoughts and out of the ME's grip to quickly pull the garment closed around her friend once more.

"_God_ no!" Jane stared at Maura and then realized how weird her reaction must seem to the other woman. "I mean, I'm fine, I'm not so cold…_ You_ should be cold. Let's go, huh?" Jane asked, linking one of her arms with Maura's to lead her.

"I guess it's a good thing we only had to do this once," Maura mused, following Jane to the changeroom. The pair parted so Maura could change back into her more 'Doctorly' attire. "Though I might miss the reactions I got from wearing this," The ME flung the corset over the door where she'd been instructed to put it. Jane stifled a groan and leaned the back of her head against the wall behind her. She wasn't sure if she was attracted to _women_, but she did know that she was sure as hell attracted to_ this one._ Maura opened the door when she was dressed and smiled at Jane. The ME held her arm out for Jane to take again and the pair made their way out of the club and towards the surveillance van that Frost and Korsak were waiting for them in. "You seem quiet, Jane," Maura observed. "Is there anything bothering you?"

"I just can't _wait _for this case to be over," Jane complained loudly, sliding the van door open and holding out a hand to help the ME climb up into a seat. One look at Frost told Jane that he had heard and saw everything and that he had interpreted it for exactly what it was. Jane looked away from her partner back into Maura's smiling face. Jane was surprised that she didn't feel embarrassed at all. Instead, as she looked into Maura's kind, green eyes, she felt a sense of ease flood her body. She looked at her best friend's fashionable clothes, remembered dreaming about running her hands through Maura's blonde curls and smiled as she thought about how the Doctor seemed to know everything, using that knowledge to prove how much she cared. Jane sat confidently next to Maura and smiled down at the smaller woman. She was smitten and she didn't care who knew. She absolutely adored the woman beside her. She loved everything Maura was and respected everything the ME did. Jane loved Maura Isles... How could she not?

* * *

**I really hope this was as cute as I wanted it to be! I know there's a lot of canon ep., in this chapter especially, but I needed it! It's really helping me set up some future stuff. :) Let me know what you think and what you want! -J**


	11. Chapter 11

**Absolute setup and fluff. Also, I needed to write about Frost and Frankie as outside-of-work friends. I kinda ship it? LMAO - Not super seriously tho. **

* * *

Barry Frost woke on Saturday morning with a smile on his face. He stretched the rest from his body and rubbed his eyes before he looked over at his alarm clock. 9:23 AM. He hadn't slept in that late since… He didn't think he'd ever slept in that late, actually. He loved it when his work week ended with a closed case. Through his friend's usual 'dynamic-duo' prowess, they'd solved the case of the lesbian bar owner teaming up with the victim's wife so that they could inherit money. Waking up to justice served and no other worries in the world was the best way to wake up. There was nothing to distract him from his weekend plans.

Frost got out of his bed and immediately turned to make it. He fluffed his pillows and rearranged the blankets, pulling down the lip so that it would look extra inviting for him at the end of his day off. He was merely on call that Saturday and he had grand plans. He shaved his face, showered and dressed in dark jeans and a deep purple t-shirt. He unplugged his phone from its charger to see that Frankie had already texted him.

**Hey, this game isn't gonna beat itself! Get your ass over here! -FJ**

Frost was glad to see that Frankie was just as excited to game together as he was.

**OMW! Be there in 20! Those trolls aren't gonna know what hit them! -BF**

Barry pulled on his sneakers and locked his door behind him. He walked the short distance to Frankie's apartment and picked up coffee for the pair of them on his way. He let himself into the younger Rizzoli's apartment after knocking twice on the door; this was their usual Saturday routine as long as they both had the day off.

"Hey, Frankie!" Frost shouted down the hallway before making his way toward the small living room. He placed Frankie's coffee in front of the other man and sat down beside him on the couch. "Woah! You made it to the Mystic Marsh already?" He looked at the T.V. in surprise.

"Uh,_ yeah_, I'm kinda awesome," Frankie retorted. "You gonna grab that controller and play or are you just gonna try to learn from the master all day?" Frankie paused to look over at his friend but had a grin on his face.

"Shut up, Rizzoli _Junior,_" Frost teased back before taking the spare controller and joining Frankie on the screen. "Alright man, time to clean house!" The pair of men yelled at the screen, at each other, and at a rather innocent fly for 'interference' when it had landed on the television. They drank their coffees and ordered pizza for brunch to regain some energy before continuing for a couple of hours more. Frankie decided it was time to see if Frost might give him more info about the case the Detectives had worked that week.

"So, Jane said you guys had an undercover thing this week? That's pretty cool, huh?" The younger Rizzoli tried to remain casual but Frost could read him like an open book. He was so much like his sister.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool…" Frost had a question of his own for Frankie but didn't know how to bring it up.

"Detective Crowe told me that Jane had to, uh, go out on a bunch of dates at a gay bar to try to get some DNA?" Frankie asked through the laughter that was building up inside of his chest. He could barely imagine his sister putting up with that and the image was quite hilarious to him. "And he said that Doctor Isles was there too… In lingerie… When I asked Jane, she literally told me that it was 'need to know' and that she was 'not at liberty to discuss it'. I mean, I'm only her brother, you'd figure she'd tell me cool undercover stories." Frankie gestured with his hands exactly the way Jane did and Frost found it amusing.

"Yeah well, once you make Detective, she won't be able to keep that stuff from you anymore." Frost nudged Frankie on the arm.

"So it's true then?" Frankie was surprised that Crowe had told the truth. "Janie went on a bunch of dates with women?" He looked at Frost's face in shock.

"They were just pretend dates, Frankie," Frost felt defensive for Jane, but this line of questioning seemed like the perfect time to ask his own question. Barry had grown kind of protective of Maura and didn't want to see one of his best friends getting hurt. "It was for the case… I don't think they meant anything to her… She not, you know, gay is she?" He winced at the overstep and got even more nervous at the anger that flashed across Frankie's face.

"Why, are you interested in my sister?" Frankie spat out and puffed up his chest in a threatening manner. Frost was reasonably taken aback before he saw Frankie struggling to keep his face straight any longer and then the pair of men broke out into laughter.

"You asshole!" Frost shouted as he punched Frankie hard on the shoulder. "No! I just know someone who likes her, but they're a woman so…" The Detective shrugged.

Frankie, though he cared for and admired his sister very much, didn't put much thought into her relationships. His sister seemed to exclusively have very brief flings with men that didn't suit her well. He thought back to the first and only female friend Jane had growing up. He had been about twelve, which would have made Jane about fourteen. She had grown really close with a classmate named Emily and young Frankie was in love with her red hair and equally fiery attitude. If Jane left Emily alone for more than a minute, Frankie would swoop in and try to woo her friend. He would share his snacks with her and had even picked flowers to give to her once. One day, Jane had allowed Frankie to play basketball in the driveway with them and he seemed to think that he and Emily were growing closer with every play.

When Jane decided to go get drinks, she left Frankie and Emily alone on the front porch of their house. Frankie took the opportunity to make his move and ended up getting his first kiss that day. He remembered Jane walking back out onto the front porch catching the kiss and dropping the pitcher of lemonade and the three glasses she had brought out on a tray. He remembered being confused when Jane got really angry at Emily and told her to go home and not come back. He tried to get her to talk about it in the weeks following, but Jane ignored him for a while after that. It took Jane a couple of months to start acting normally again, so Frankie had decided not to bring Emily up anymore. He only ever saw her at school after that, but they never spoke to each other again.

Frankie remembered how his sister would look at Emily. He remembered how Jane would carry the other girl's textbooks and make sure she'd gotten to her classes okay before leaving for her own. His sister never looked at anybody quite like that again… But the way Jane held open doors for the new ME, how she brought the Doctor coffee and guided the smaller woman down hallways with a hand pressed to the small of the woman's back made him think of Emily. Jane looked at Maura like the smaller woman was worth hundreds of Emilys, and Frankie found himself hoping that Jane might find new happiness in the strange, caring Doctor.

"Is it Maura?" Frankie asked as he looked Frost in the eyes. "You think Doctor Death has a crush on my sister?" The silence was loaded and Frost could only nod his response. "Good…" Frankie smiled at the man before turning back to the game. "She's probly got a shot I think." He shrugged and Frost smiled, turning to the T.V. again as well.

* * *

Jane dribbled the basketball with minimal skill before throwing it directly over Frankie's head. The ball ricocheted off of the hoop and almost hit her in the face. She stuck her hand's up to catch it just in time and her younger brother nearly fell to the ground laughing.

"Oh my God, Janie!" Frankie bellowed out. "That was… the funniest thing… I've ever seen!" He spoke in between bursts of laughter. Jane stepped around him and lightly tossed the ball to hit him in the back of the head. "Ow! Oh, come on! You beat me at everything else, just give me basketball." Frankie shook his head as he chuckled at the annoyance on his sister's face. "Okay, you really wanna win? Get this next shot on me and you win, alright?" Jane decided she liked the sound of those odds. Frankie tossed her the ball and she took aim on the net. Frankie played the announcer. "In the final basket in Rizzoli verse Rizzoli, Rizzoli takes the last shot! She aims! She shoots! AND…! She misses! Rizzoli wins!" Frankie ran a couple of circles around Jane pretending to be a crowd going wild.

"You know," Jane started. "_This_ is why I always offer to be on call every Sunday." She rolled her eyes at her brother and pushed his shoulder to get him to stop.

"Oh, I know why you _really _offer to be on call every weekend," Frankie responded and wriggled his eyebrows at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, honestly confused by the remark.

"Oh, nothing." Frankie purposefully acted like his comment was no big deal to get a rise out of Jane. He really knew how to push her buttons. She jumped on his back and the pair of them started wrestling in the way siblings do but were quickly interrupted by their mother.

"I swear on everything that is holy that if you don't stop roughhousing with your brother, Jane Clemintine Rizzoli, I will feed you nothing but broccoli!" Angela stood on the front porch of Jane's childhood home with her hands on her hips and a rolling pin in one of her hands. Her children stopped immediately, eyeing the rolling pin in terror. Angela never hit her children, of course, but boy, had she threatened to.

"Ma!" Jane put her hands out to either side of her body. "_He _started it!" She pointed at her brother.

"Yeah, I did, it's not her fault." Frankie immediately came to his sister's defense.

"I don't care who started it, I'm gonna finish it!" Angela hollered back. "Now get your behinds in this house and help me clean up! Janie, you set the table and Frankie, you start on the dishes. The Talucci's are gonna be here soon and if Karla has one more negative thing to say about my kitchen, _she_ just might be what's cookin' next Sunday."

"Ma!" Frankie scolded his mother while Jane laughed at the rant. "Real nice thing to say to your law enforcement kids, come on!" Frankie held the door open for his mother and sister and then followed to women into the house.

"You're a good boy, Frankie." Angela patted her son quickly on the cheek and then turned around to look at Jane. "You could at least turn your phone off for family dinner you know." She swatted her daughter's butt lightly with the rolling pin.

"Ma! Jesus," Jane rubbed her behind as she walked over to the counter where she'd put her cell.

"You don't have to go do you?" Angela eyed her daughter's phone nervously. She hated that device. It had a magical ability to make her only daughter disappear.

"Nah, it's just a couple of texts," Jane said absentmindedly as she smiled down at her phone.

**Any of those women at Merch catch your eye, Detective? -M**

**I seem to remember Barold saying that 'hot blondes' weren't your type… What is? **

Jane read and reread the texts. She was uncertain if Maura was simply asking or if the ME was flirting with her. Although the good Doctor wasn't shy about anything, that also meant that anything was possible. Jane decided to be just as mysterious.

**He might have said that, but I never said hot blondes weren't my type. -J**

**I'm curious to learn what your type is, then. -M**

Jane got pulled out of her texting by the high pitched voice of her overbearing mother.

"Oo, you seem to like whoever you're texting, sweetie, you got a new man you haven't told me about?" Angela stared at her daughter accusingly. Jane barked out a laugh and shook her head at her mother.

"Nope," Jane stated truthfully. "I definitely do not have a new man." She took her phone with her as she started to set the table the way her mother liked it. Frankie hid his grin behind his hand and pretended to be yawning.

"Well, that's too bad," Angela continued. "I wish you'd settle down and let someone take care of you, Janie. You deserve it!" She began her long list of wishes for her daughter.

"Aw, Ma, leave her alone?" Frankie suggested as he made his way over to the sink. "She's happy, alright, isn't that all you could ask for?"

"No," Angela argued and hit her son's butt with the rolling pin. "It's just… Janie, it's so scary, honey. You're out in the streets doing God knows what and Frankie's out there following you around and I'm stuck in this house worried that the two of you might never…" She paused and sniffed. "Might never even come home. I never stop worrying. I can't lose another baby." A tear leaked out of Angela's eye.

"Tommy isn't_ dead _Ma, jeez, he's gonna be out soon." Frankie exercised his patience with his mother. He always took it upon himself to run interference for Jane, he knew how much it hurt his sister's feeling that their mother didn't support her choices or really understand Jane at all. "And I do _not _follow Janie around! We barely even work together." He rolled his eyes but was secretly pleased when people compared him to Jane. He idolized her.

"You need a man, Janie. Someone to come home to, somebody to go home_ for!"_ Angela continued as if Frankie hadn't spoken.

"Ma!" Jane had finally had enough. "I don't _need a man_, okay?" She tossed a tablecloth onto the counter and stared down at her mother, willing the older woman to finally understand. "If I ever find somebody crazy enough to love me, then they're gonna be the kind of person with just as much dedication to their job as I am. I'm not gonna settle for some _man _just because you want me to spend my time cooking food alone in my apartment. If I love somebody, I'm gonna fall in love with their drive, Ma, with their ability to make me laugh and their understanding that my_ job _will always be the most important thing in my life. I'm not gonna settle for anything less than I deserve. You taught me that Ma, you showed me to not settle for less than what I deserve! I _deserve_ a little understanding from the person who ends up loving me and I think after thirty years, I might deserve a little bit of understanding from my _mother!_" Jane had started shouting and pointing like the Italian that she was and Angela had never seen such passion in her daughter. It brought more tears to her eyes and she moved forward towards her daughter. "Oh for the love of God, Ma, are you _crying?" _Jane rolled her eyes thinking that her mom was going to continue to argue but was shocked still when Angela wrapped her up in a big hug instead. "Uh… Ma?" Jane stared down at the top of her mother's head as the small woman squeezed Jane's arms to her sides tightly.

"You're right, Janie," Angela whispered. "You deserve all that and more." Jane thought she might have misheard her mother. She started to try to wiggle free and Angela, ever annoyed at her daughter's dislike of physical contact, took the opportunity to poke Jane in the ribs a few times. "Just get what you deserve sooner rather than later, huh?" Angela suggested through her tickling. Jane laughed loudly as she squirmed away.

"Alright! Alright, Ma, I heard you! Alright!" Jane yelled through her laughter. She was saved by the doorbell.

"I'll get it!" Frankie offered with a pleased grin on his face. He opened the front door to see the Talucci family. "Come on in guys, we're just finishing up!" He held the door open and the large family entered.

The two Italian families greeted each other and somebody at some point handed Jane a bottle of wine. She looked down at the bottle and recognized it as the cabernet Maura had traded for her beer. She smiled down at the label as her thoughts turned back to the ME. Frankie noticed his sister and he knew her well enough to know what was going on in her head.

"You know you're supposed to drink that, right?" He joked and pointed to the bottle. Jane rolled her eyes and the siblings walked over to the cupboard that housed their finest glasses. "Hey, Janie?" Frankie looked up at his sister's content face.

"Yeah, little brother?" She asked him while she decided what wine glasses were appropriate.

"Uh, I just wanted to let you know that I…" He cleared his throat nervously before he could get the words out. "I just wanted to let you know that I think she's great, alright?" Jane looked down at her brother in shock and confusion. "Doctor Isles, I mean. I think she's great." He smiled and nodded. Jane looked down at her little brother and was proud of the man that stood before her. He had grown up to be more kind and caring than Jane could have hoped for. He knew exactly what would be best for Jane, sometimes even before she, herself, did. In a rare Rizzoli sibling moment, Jane pulled her little brother into a hug and they clapped each other on the back a couple of times before they separated.

"Me too, little brother," Jane agreed. "I think so too."

Family Sunday was how it always was; loud and busy but with very good food. Jane sat across from her mother, each at the head of the table and Frankie sat on Jane's left, always there to support her and defend her from the ravenous beasts that were the Talucci family. Karla didn't even have anything bad to say about Angela's kitchen that week. Neither of the Rizzoli siblings knew why their mother even invited the Talucci's, but as long as the Rizzoli's stuck together, they always pulled through. Jane took her time sipping her wine, mostly because she was on call, but also because the drink reminded her of Maura and the Detective missed seeing her that weekend. Each sip felt like a little piece of the ME. For more than one reason, she couldn't wait to get back to work on Monday.

* * *

Jane woke up to banging on the door of her apartment. She groaned her complaint as she sat up and pulled a sweater on over her tank top. She ambled towards the door thinking that her mother had absolutely no respect for personal boundaries.

"Ma, I swear on my badge, if this isn't an emergency I'm gonna-" Jane pulled her door open to see a very cold looking medical examiner holding two coffees in gloved hands. "Maura? What are_ you_ doing here?" Jane asked in shock. "This is my apartment!" Jane stated the obvious as if it might help clear her mind from confusion.

"Yes, this is your apartment," Maura agreed. "Your doorman let me in, he's very nice. May I come in? I brought you coffee." Maura lifted the beverage up. Jane looked down at the cup and opened her door wider for her friend. "Your apartment is really lovely, Jane!" Maura exclaimed.

"You sound surprised," Jane rolled her eyes. "What? Were you expecting a fort made out of pizza boxes and beer bottles with dead plants everywhere?" Jane wasn't the cleanest person on the Earth, but she knew how to take care of things and make a home look nice, especially after a weekend off.

"I don't guess, Jane," Maura defended herself. She handed the coffees to her friend and made herself at home by taking off her coat and gloves, placing both on the back of the Detective's couch.

"Maura," Jane looked confusedly at the Doctor again. "I don't _have _a doorman. _Who_ let you up here?" Jane moved to the counter/booth combination that served as a separating line for the kitchen and the living room. She placed the coffees down and Maura followed to sit at the booth.

"I have no idea, it hardly matters though, _you're_ going to make us late for work!" Maura accused with a small smile. In Jane's annoyance of being woken so suddenly and then at her surprise at seeing Maura, she'd forgotten completely that it was Monday. She looked at the clock.

"Oh, shi-oot!" Jane looked at Maura. "It's seven forty! Why is it seven forty?" She yelled at her friend who looked entertained.

"It snowed last night, Jane," Maura explained patiently. "I assumed that, like most of this area, your power went out and your phone had died. When you didn't text me back, I tried to call but it went right to voicemail. I figured I'd drive over and make sure that you were up and ready for work." Maura eyed Jane's outfit and grinned up at her friend. "I daresay it's a good thing that I did." Maura laughed at Jane's eye roll.

"I'd rather go to work like this than wear your sunshine yellow blazer ever again. It looks way better on you." Jane ran her fingers through her hair. "At least nobody would think I looked crazy in this." Jane grabbed her sweatpants as if to prove her point and Maura shook her head, clearly entertained. "So you woke up and _guessed_ that my power was out, and then decided to drive over in the snow when I didn't answer my phone?"

"Yes," Maura agreed easily and took a sip of her coffee. Jane leaned forward and kissed the side of Maura's head. She grabbed the coffee the ME had picked up for her and made her way back to her bedroom.

"You're the best person on the planet, Maura Isles!" Jane hollered from the hallway. Maura blushed and grinned at her friend's back.

Maura couldn't stop herself from smiling as she sipped her coffee. She admired Jane's taste in decor and was surprised that the Detective had such nice things. She didn't know what she had been expecting Jane's apartment to look like but she certainly wasn't expecting the lovely earth-toned color of the walls or the rustic lamps and furnishings. She admired the photographs of Jane's family that lined her walls, mixed in with tasteful art that Maura recognized. She noticed a piano beside the door that had no dust on it, indicating that it was either played often or that Jane cared enough about the instrument to keep it clean. Maura was especially surprised to see several live plants flourishing. Jane's apartment was tidy, but it was still a little messy, giving it a lived-in feel. Although the apartment was on the smaller side, the way Jane had decorated it made it feel like it had depth. It was a true reflection of the Detective herself; different than what one would expect with a huge amount of depth and a surprising amount of inner beauty.

"You been snooping?" Maura jumped as Jane walked out of the hallway and back towards the booth. Jane placed her blazer and her kit belt on the counter while she tucked her blouse into her pants.

"Of course not!" Maura defended quickly. "I've been… Admiring your taste in decoration and wondering about that." Maura pointed to the piano. Jane grinned at the instrument.

"That's called a piano," Jane explained in a mock-educator voice. "You press the keys and then-"

"Shut up, Jane, I know what a piano is." Maura rolled her eyes in a way that would rival Jane.

"Doctor Isles!" Jane chastised with a smile. "Did you just tell me to shut up?" Jane chuckled at the shocked look on the ME's face.

"Yes. Yes, I believe I did." The pair of women broke out laughing. "Jane, we're going to be late if we don't leave soon. It's going to take us a while to drive through the snow."

"Yeah, yeah, change the subject, I see what you're doing." Jane eyed the Doctor knowingly before she pulled her blazer over her shirt and began to loop her kit belt to her pants. Maura admired Jane's choice of clothing. As ever, the labels weren't flashy but the fit was perfect. As soon as Jane was finished buckling her belt, Maura wanted to do nothing more than rip it off of her, and she couldn't keep her mind from wondering how Jane's muscles might move underneath her touch. The Detective looked up and noticed that Maura's eyes had that glazed look to them again and she was concerned.

"You okay, Maur?" Jane asked as she moved to her hall closet to grab her coat.

"What? Yes, of course." Maura smiled. "I was just… Daydreaming."

"I wonder what the genius Doctor Isles daydreams about." Jane mused out loud, hoping her friend might elaborate.

"I'm not sure you'd want to know," Maura answered honestly. She moved from the barstool she'd been sitting on back to the couch where her coat was. She pulled her gloves on first and then pulled on her coat. She began to struggle with the buttons just as she had at her own house, but this time she was determined to fasten the coat closed so she wouldn't be as cold as she had been on the way to Jane's when she'd given up and left it open.

"Why didn't you put your gloves on _after_ you put your coat on?" Jane asked. She'd watched Maura curiously as the ME gave her cryptic answer and then moved toward the couch.

"I like it when my gloves are tucked in," Maura paused to point to one of her wrists where her glove was perfectly tucked into her coat sleeve. "But then I have trouble with the buttons. If I put my coat on first, though, I have trouble tucking in my gloves." Maura pouted down at her coat and Jane laughed. How could the smartest person she'd ever met be so downright adorable?

"You know you can ask for help, right?" Jane asked, smiling down at the ME. Jane walked up to her friend and her hands shook only slightly as she did up Maura's buttons. "There we go." Jane finished and reached around Maura's neck to fix the collar of the other woman's coat. The pair smiled at each other as Jane let her hands linger on Maura's shoulders for a half-second. The thought of_ un_buttoning the ME's coat and then tearing away everything else she wore made Jane step back and take a deep breath. She cleared her throat and moved away from the smaller woman. The brunette returned with the coffees and handed Maura hers. "Shall we?" Jane gestured to the door.

They made their way out of the building as they bickered about who would drive them to work. Maura won, of course, because she'd had the forethought to check the weather and had already gotten her winter tires put on. Maura agreed to let Jane drive her car on the way home though, and the Detective happily let the Doctor drive them through the streets of Boston, toward what would be one of the best and one of the worst weeks of either of their lives.

* * *

**DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN**

**I'm sorry if your name is Emily and you got offended lol - She's based on my IRL childhood crush soooo :P**

**I really start going off the rails after this chapter. You can expect near-death experiences, extreme sexual tension, and cuteness overload from here on out. I'm gonna get angsty for a chapter or two before the hot and steamy sex can happen, but it's NEEDED. This chapter was mostly set-up for future stuff but good things are coming! **


	12. Chapter 12

**Hope you guys like this one! I feel like some emotional turmoil is appropriate. I'm a few chapters ahead of this one, I just need to edit and adjust some parts of them before posting, so I can say with confidence that you'll get smutty smut by chapter 20 LMAO - Thank you for your patience. **

* * *

**Monday**

Jane sat contently in Maura's passenger seat staring out into the winter that had appeared overnight. It was rare for Boston to get so much snow all at once, but as Jane watched children making snow angels and couples snuggling up together for warmth, she couldn't bring herself to be anything but happy. The women chatted idly on their way to the precinct, Maura informing Jane of the types of clouds and the specific atmospheric requirements that caused the foot of snow to fall, while Jane happily sat and listen to the ME.

They separated from each other after they'd parked in the precinct garage with promises of getting lunch together if possible.

Maura took the elevator down to the morgue and was surprised to see a few members of her team huddled around her office door. Upon sight of the ME, they backed up and gave her room to approach.

"What's going on?" Maura asked Susie, who had been doing her best to get everyone to go back to work.

"They're, uh, just speculating about who those are from," The Criminologist glanced at the Doctor. "I tried to get them to go back to work." At Susie's words, Maura glanced into her office and was surprised to see a bouquet of flowers sitting proudly on her desk.

"Oh!" Maura looked at the display in confusion. She hadn't shown interest in dating anybody since she'd met Jane, so she wasn't sure who might have thought the romantic gift was a good idea. "You don't know who they're from?" Maura eyed the gift suspiciously before she turned to ask Susie.

"No, they were here when I came in this morning." Susie shrugged. "But the doors to the morgue were still locked when I got here so I think they must have been delivered last night." Maura looked even more confused at the criminalist's remarks.

The ME had been called into work the day prior and remembered leaving the morgue and locking it up behind her. Somebody with a keycode must have let themselves in to set up the arrangement

"That's strange," Maura mused out loud. "You should all get back to whatever it is you're supposed to be doing." The Doctor ordered the rest of her team. "We're likely to get bodies with all this snow." Everyone started to disperse with curious glances to the ME and to the flowers that were gifted to her. "Susie, would you mind waiting?" Maura stopped her senior criminalist. She wasn't sure why but it made her nervous to enter her office alone when she didn't know who the gift was from. _Jane would call this a gut thing, _Maura thought absently.

"Of course, Doctor Isles," Susie smiled and walked into her boss's office with her. Maura walked toward the bouquet and noticed a note sticking out between two of the flowers. Maura looked at the odd bouquet. It was made up of dark orange lilies and shockingly purple petunias, with a singular black rose. Though the overall aesthetic was appealing, the contrast of the colors and the general meaning behind the flowers gave the arrangement a rather sinister aura. Maura reached out to pull the note off of the bouquet but felt a sharp pain in her forefinger when she grabbed it. She pulled her hand back quickly, blood started to leak out of a long, deep cut that had just been made along her finger and into her palm. "Doctor Isles, are you alright?" The ME ignored Susie and removed to note more carefully. Someone had stuck a razor blade behind the slip of paper as if planning for whoever received to note to cut themselves. Maura pulled the paper from its place and read.

_To the Lovely Doctor Isles, _

_Orange lilies represent hatred, pride, and disdain,  
So I hope these flowers find you and give you a great deal of pain._

_Two of those emotions are how I feel for you, can you GUESS?  
Or will your pride get in the way of you passing my test?_

_The petunias are for the anger you've brought to my heart  
by stealing my Detective from me, you've torn us apart. _

_When she comes back to me you'll have drawn your last breath,  
which brings us to the black rose; the flower of death. _

_The blade that I hope cut your finger has been laced with a poison  
And an hour you have until your heart stops, frozen. _

_The game is afoot Doctor Isles, and so is the devil  
Your hour counts down for this case to be settled. _

_Dr. Steel Slannored_

Maura stared at the paper and then held her rapidly bleeding finger up next to the note.

"Call Jane," Maura whispered to Susie, who lingered in the office, unsure. "I need Jane! Get me Jane!" Maura shouted to the criminalist who pulled out her cellphone to call the Detective. Maura didn't hear Susie's half of the phone call because she was already rereading the note; intent on solving the case.

* * *

Jane walked into the bullpen with a small smile playing at her lips. She was happy to see that the office plant was in bloom again, it was a nice offset to the winter wonderland outside. She smiled wider still at the sight of her little brother leaning on her desk, chatting with Frost and Korsak.

"Hey guys, some weather, huh?" Jane asked, getting the group's attention. Frost scoffed at Jane.

"You're really gonna walk up in here and pretend nothing happened? Okay there, lover-girl." He eyed his partner in mock-annoyance.

"Pretend what? Lover _what_?" Jane retorted. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Korsak rolled his eyes at the woman.

"Come on Janie, they got delivered this morning. I brought them down myself. Interesting color choice, though. I would have just gone with classic red roses." The older man shrugged. Jane was more confused than ever.

"Roses? What the hell are you talking about? You sure it's coffee in those cups?" She stood with her hands in her pockets and her head tilted to the side. Frankie clapped his sister on the back and shook his head.

"Listen, sister, if you're gonna go for it with Maura, you're gonna have a hard time hiding it from us," Frankie rolled his eyes at Jane's continued apparent ignorance. "We're also kinda good at solving puzzles."

"Yeah," Frost agreed. "If you didn't want us to know, why would you get the flowers delivered to Korsak so that he could put them on her desk?"

"Guys, I've never bought flowers in my life, and I'm not '_going for it_' with Maura." Jane ran a hand through her hair and blushed furiously. She hadn't been acting differently around the ME, so she wasn't sure why they thought she'd made a move but to see that her colleagues would support her if she _did_ pursue the Doctor made her happy, if not a little embarrassed. "I honestly have no clue what you're talking about." She shrugged at the confused looks on her friend's faces.

"But Jane," Korsak started, "when I walked into the building the delivery man gave me your specific instructions. He said that the flowers were from you." Jane shrugged again before she responded.

"I don't know, I guess someone really wanted Maura to get flowers or whatever... But it wasn't me." Jane laughed nervously and kicked at the floor. She felt a hint of jealousy begin to grow in her chest. "I was too busy this weekend to plan anything like that." Frankie nodded in agreement. He didn't know when Jane might have been able to call a flower shop.

"Well if you didn't get the flowers for her," Frost asked, "Then who did?" The group's wonderings were interrupted by the phone on Jane's desk ringing. She answered to a panicked Susie Chang.

"Rizzoli... She's been what...? I'll be right there!" Jane slammed the phone back on her desk. "Korsak, check the cameras when you were given the flowers and try to get a face, Frost, you search up flower shops and call around to see who's sold bouquets with petunias, orange lilies, and black roses. Frankie, come with me." The group of men followed Jane's orders immediately, though she didn't explain why they needed to. They all trusted her and sensed that something was wrong. Jane and her brother made their way down to the morgue.

They found Maura standing in the middle of her office staring down at the note, unmoving. A small stream of blood dripped down her finger and off of her knuckle, which made a small puddle on the floor.

"Maura?" Jane approached her friend. The Detective glanced at the flowers before her eyes landed on the note. She read. "Who is Dr. Steel Slannored?" She asked the ME. Maura looked up at Jane and the Detective registered the fear in her friend's eyes.

"I've never heard that name in my life," Maura spoke quietly. She was likely in a state of shock. Jane took a blue rubber glove out of the ME's desk drawer and removed the note from Maura's hand.

"We're already on it, Maur," Jane said. "Frost is checking flower shops and Korsak is checking the cameras. We'll figure this out." Jane moved to get a closer look at the flowers and her stomach flipped at the red-tinged razor blade. She looked back to the pool of Maura's blood and her own started to boil. "Nobody threatens my family and gets away with it." Jane all but growled the words, and they were all Maura needed to hear for her mind to break free from the fog that had intruded upon her thoughts.

"Jane, I..." Maura lifted her bloodied hand up for the Detective to see. They locked eyes and understood each other completely. Jane knew that through Maura's fear, she was going to help solve the case and that there was nothing to be done to change her mind. Maura knew through Jane's anger, the Detective would move continents to make sure Maura was safe.

"Come on," Jane wrapped a hand around Maura's waist and led the ME to the morgue. "Hey, Chang, can you get Maura's skin adhesive from her first aid kit? It's in her bottom left drawer. We'll need disinfectant and bandages too." The Criminalist nodded and followed Jane's instructions. "Maura, can you fill us in on what happened when you came to work? Has anybody been following you lately? Have you been on any strange dates?" Jane questioned Maura and Frankie listened.

"They were just there, Jane," Maura sat on a stool next to the autopsy table and rested her injured hand on the cool metal. It struck both of the women then that if they didn't figure the cryptic message out, the rest of Maura's body might be joining her hand where it lay. "The note isn't about me... it's for me but it's _about_ you. I haven't been on any dates since I met- for months." Maura looked up as Susie approached with the first aid kit. "Okay, Susie, you're going to need to clean the wound thoroughly before we can try to glue it closed. I'm not entirely sure yet if it'll need stitches because there's too much blood." Susie nodded her understanding and began to work on the deep cut that ran the length of her boss's index finger and into her palm. Lab techs paced around scrambling to understand what had happened.

"Okay," Jane tried to distract Maura from the pain. "We know that somebody delivered the flowers to Korsak this morning when he was walking into the front doors. Whoever it was told him that they were from me and that he should bring the flowers down to your office." Maura nodded in understanding and winced as her hand began to sting again as Susie disinfected it. "Frankie, can you get me an evidence bag for this?" Jane held up the note she was holding and her brother acted right away. "Thank you, copy down what's written and get Frost to run a search on the name. It's likely false, but he wouldn't have put a name at all if he didn't mean for it to be a clue."

"Jane, you can't know that!" Maura argued.

"Like hell, I can't!" Jane shot back. "He's playing a game, Maura! He told us his intentions, why he chose the flowers, what they represent, and what we need to do to make sure you're playing." Jane ran a hand through her hair and pointed to a section of the note. "'The Game's afoot', Maura... Frankie, make sure the guys get a copy of this, okay? I want everybody in the building working this!" Jane started pacing back and forth with one hand in her hair and one on her hip. "Can somebody come and dust this for prints?! And get that bouquet from Maura's office. Check the blade too, and test it for poisons!" Jane shouted into the room. Frankie ran out to fill in the rest of the team. A lab tech entered the morgue and took the evidence bag from her without a word before he retreated back to the safety of the lab. Another pair of women made their way to the Doctor's office to follow the commands. Maura followed Jane's pacing with her eyes.

"Um, Doctor Isles?" Susie broke the silence. "I don't think glue will hold this closed." The ME looked down at her hand and immediately agreed. "Should we take you to the hospital?" Susie glanced between Maura and Jane, the latter stopped her pacing to stand and stare at the ME.

"No, we might not have time..." Maura cleared her throat before continuing. "Susie, do you remember last month when I taught you the stitch I use to close the Y incision?" Susie nodded slowly. "Good. Go to that drawer and pull out the thread and a needle. A thick one, the skin here will be hard to get through."

"Doctor Isles, I'm not qualified to-"

"Susie!" Maura cut her off. "I'll likely need my hand to stop bleeding if I'm going to help Detective Rizzoli solve this case, and I might be dead within the hour, so don't argue with me, my time is incredibly valuable. I am qualified to decide that you are fully capable of stitching the wound closed, so get to it, or I'll do it myself." Maura spoke calmly through her fear and Susie nodded once before doing what she was told.

"We don't have anything to numb you... We've never really needed it before." Susie approached with the required items and looked apologetically to Maura before she secured the thread to the needle. Maura nodded and held her other hand out to Jane, who took it immediately. "Ready?" Susie asked. Maura nodded and squeezed Jane's hand as Susie stabbed into her finger with the needle. Maura let a minimal amount of pained gasps escape her while she willed her hand to remain still.

"The only print on the note belongs to Doctor Isles." The nervous lab tech returned through the door and looked at Maura getting stitched up while color drained from his face.

"And the razor?" Jane prompted him. He shook his head.

"We didn't detect anything," he stated in a quiet, regretful voice.

"Maura, what kind of poisons are hard to detect that work within the hour?" Jane pleaded with her friend. Maura spoke through the pain.

"That's- there are thousands, Jane." Maura squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced.

"Do your research and run it again!" Jane shouted at the man, who immediately turned to the lab once again. A video call came through on one of the morgue computer screens and Jane lifted Maura's uninjured hand to kiss it before she moved to answer it. Frost and Korsak appeared on the monitor. "What did you find?" Jane asked.

"Nothing," Korsak claimed in a defeated tone. "We got nothing on the cameras, the guy's hat blocks his face. I was so distracted by the flowers I didn't get a real good look at him." Korsak rubbed his face with his hand so Jane looked to Frost.

"I called every flower shop in Boston, Jane, nobody made that arrangement. They all sold each of those flowers but it'll take hours to trace back to one buyer if we even can, and we don't have the time... That note, Jane-"

"I know we don't have the time!" Jane shouted at the screen and slammed her fist on the countertop. "What about the name? Dr. Steel, did that bring anything up?"

"No, we're running it through the system now. Frankie thought it could be an anagram. The only thing that sounds familiar to me so far is Dr. Leon Sternsdale... Why do I know that name?" Frost mused out loud as his fingers began to type on his keyboard. Jane was faster.

"Sherlock Holmes!" Jane shouted. "It's a Sherlock reference! 'The game's afoot', and Dr. Leon Sternsdale! It's a fucking pun... Bring me that poem!" Jane shouted, and the slip of paper appeared in her hand. "'The game's afoot and so is the Devil'," Jane recited. "He's referencing _The Adventure of the Devil's Foot_ by Arthur Conan Doyle. That's got to be it! The Devil's Foot poison..."

Susie had finished sewing Maura closed and the ME had been listening with rapt attention. As her bandages were finished she interjected.

"Jane, devil's foot is a fictional poison. I'm not dying of a fictional poison," the ME stood to join Jane at the monitor. "For all we know, there isn't even anything in my system. Finding such an undetectable and fast-acting poison would be hard enough, let alone one that would be easily transferred to my bloodstream with just a cut." Maura lifted her hand and stared at her bandages.

"It has to mean _something_," Jane argued. "Why else would he have put it in there? Susie, can you tell that tech guy to limit his search to... Uh, West African roots that can be ground into a powder. Hard to detect ones, and... Easy to transfer to the bloodstream." Jane recalled everything she could about the fictional plant created by one of her favorite authors. As ever, the Criminalist followed orders.

"That's quite a large jump, Jane," Maura continued. "Whoever wrote that note may simply be trying to terrorize me. The note could be a ruse."

"I'm not willing to risk you dying over the possibility that it's just a fear tactic, Maura. You're far too important. I don't remember how he solved the case."

"Who, Sherlock?" Frost asked through the screen. "Uhh, the internet says a dried rhizome of yellow jasmine."

"There are absolutely no real healing properties in that flower whatsoever, " Maura looked to Jane, but both women were at a loss for how to proceed.

"Maura, you are the smartest person on the planet!" Jane grabbed her friend's shoulders. "Use your big brain to think of what he could mean! It has to be a metaphor or something, right? Everything else in his poem is a stupid Sherlock reference or flower meaning. What west African plants will kill you in the next… thirty minutes?" They heard Frost continue to type, researching root plants.

"Jane, that would be guessing", Maura complained. "Whoever wrote that note is intending for me to guess. We could be acting exactly the way they want us to act… What if it doesn't matter?"

"Maura, I've played this kind of game before. These guys, they're bad but they play by the rules. Their rules. He wouldn't have put in so much effort if he wasn't gonna play fair." Jane rolled her shoulders in frustration and took a deep breath. "We just gotta play _better._" Maura looked into the absolute conviction of Jane's face and decided to trust her friend's intestine.

"Okay," Maura nodded. "West African root plants." Maura closed her eyes and gestured with her hands as if she were wiping some of the options away. "Poisonous… Non-traceable… No side effects… Easy to transfer…" Maura continued to rattle off qualifying factors and run through her mental list of plants while Frost's computer did the same. The pair shouted in unison.

"Alliamyristica Solamovitus!"

"Great!" Jane shouted back. "How do we cure it?" She looked expectantly at Maura and the ME's face fell.

"Jane…" Maura looked down at her bandages again.

"What is it, Maura?" Jane could tell that something was wrong, but it was Frost who answered through the screen instead of the Doctor.

"Jane, there's only one known cure for Alliamyristica Solamovitus…" Frost cleared his throat. "It's petals of a purple ficus maxima florana. Maura would have to eat the petals of the flower…"

"Okay, so we get her that flower." Jane stared at the screen.

"We have that tree here, Janie," Korsak looked up and over the camera. Jane thought of the small purple flowers that bloomed every so often on the tree in the bullpen. She remembered admiring them that morning.

"Okay, so what's the problem?" She asked the monitor. Maura finally spoke up, though she didn't take her eyes off of her bandaged hand.

"We have no way of knowing if the poison entered my system when I was injured," Maura glanced up into Jane's worried brown eyes. "And if one ingests the petals of a purple ficus maxima florana without having Alliamyristica Solamovitus is their system, they will die. Jane, either way, I might die."

The women stared at each other. If Maura had been poisoned, waiting would kill her. If Maura hadn't been poisoned, the antidote would kill her. There was no way for the ME to know if the toxic substance had entered her body; all she could possibly do was guess. She had less than fifteen minutes to decide.

"Maura, I brought this down just in case." Frankie entered the morgue once more, this time holding up a small branch full of tiny purple flowers. "We've called paramedics to the precinct but they're taking a while with all this snow…" He placed the branch next to Maura on the counter and glanced at his sister. Maura tried to stifle a sob. "Maura, are you crying, are you okay?" Frankie had no idea what to do.

"I'm trying not to," Maura turned away and tried to cover her face. "It's just that my amygdala and my lacrimal gland have a connection that I can't really control." Jane moved to stand in front of the ME and grabbed her by the shoulders again.

"Honey, you're gonna be fine, alright?" Jane's eyes bore into hers and she started to breathe a little easier at the care and adoration she saw in her friend's face. "What is the likelihood that you got the stuff in your blood from that cut? What percent chance?"

"I can't be sure, Jane, if I gave you a number it would be a lie!" Maura pleaded.

"No, it could just be stating the obvious," Jane retorted. "You're the smartest person in the room, how likely is it that you were poisoned?" Jane pressed her friend, knowing that this was the only way to get an answer out of the blonde. Maura glanced down at the bandage on her hand and sighed in frustration.

"Hypothetically… based on the wound pattern and depth… I might be able to determine that it is possible to hypothesize that the likelihood of contamination is about… sixty-seven percent." Maura looked into Jane's eyes again.

"I'll take it," Jane said and she grabbed the purple flowers off the counter and started to rip off the small petals.

"But I'm just _guessing,_ Jane," Maura watched. "I can't be sure, we don't have enough time to get lab results of my blood anymore and I can't-"

"Maura!" Jane cut her off. "You are your own best guess right now, okay? Your sixty-seven percent is better than most people's one hundred percent! Do you think I would let _anyone,_ even you, risk the life of my absolute favorite person on the planet unless I had complete faith in them?" Maura shook her head, knowing that Jane would do everything in her power to make sure Maura was safe. Jane held the purple flower petals up to her friend and Maura eyed them. "It's all up to you, Maura. You're my family, okay, and the one thing you should know about being a Rizzoli is that we don't give in to the fear!"

"Okay, Jane. I understand. If we give in to fear then we just end up dying a little bit every day - which metabolically speaking, we do anyway, but-"

"Maura!"

Maura nodded over to her best friend. She reached her hand up to stroke the side of Jane's face before she reached down to grab Jane's handful of petals. She felt the raised scar in the middle of Jane's palm. Jane had been in situations like this before and Maura trusted her friend with every particle of her being. Maura suffered through the bitter taste of the petals and swallowed the chewed plant. All that remained was waiting.

They waited in silence, Maura and Jane holding on to one another's hands as the minutes crawled by. Frankie let out a big sigh as the fifteen-minute mark passed. Then they waited fifteen more minutes just to be sure. He moved over to Jane and Maura and wrapped both women in a hug. He kissed each woman on the cheek before muttering.

"You're my sister, too, Maura, alright?" He kissed her on the cheek once more before he cleared his throat and left the room. He spared an embarrassed glance toward the monitor where Frost and Korsak waited with bated breath.

"Maura…" Frost started. "It says here that if it's not working you should feel like-" His voice cracked and he swallowed before he continued. "Does your stomach feel like it's on fire?"

"I feel fine," Maura spoke softly, but Frost heard her.

"Oh thank God, Doc," Korsak let out in a breath, "You really had us worried there."

"Doctor Isles…" Susie pushed up her glasses before she simply pulled Maura into a tight hug. She retreated quickly to the lab without another word, wiping her eyes on the way. Jane cleared her throat and eyed Maura wearily.

"You sure you're okay, Maur?" Jane looked worried.

"Of course," Maura squeezed Jane's arm with her good hand. "I have you." Jane blushed and grinned before she leaned forward to plant a kiss on Maura's forehead.

"Wow, three kisses in one day?" Maura joked, "I guess hot blondes _are_ your type." She chuckled as Jane's cheeks darkened. Maura looked up at Jane and was thankful to have the woman as a friend. Had it not been for Jane, the ME would most certainly have let her hour of life run out as her mind buffered over whether she ought to guess or not.

"You want me to take you home?" Jane asked, looking down at her best friend with complete devotion. Maura thought back to Frankie's loving words and to Susie's embrace. She looked up and saw Frost and Korsak bickering quietly about something on the monitor. She looked up into the most beautiful brown eyes she'd ever seen.

"I am home, Jane," Maura whispered and hugged the Detective with every ounce of strength that she had. Jane reciprocated in kind. Maura inhaled deeply, pulling in the scent that was so uniquely Jane, pulling in the smell of home.

* * *

The paramedics arrived and pretended not to be annoyed while Maura discussed their techniques as they looked her over. They cleared Maura and left with their ego's shaken, feeling rather useless.

Despite the captain's advice, Jane and Maura elected not to go into hiding. They were both determined to find the person that had threatened the ME to get to the Detective. Jane couldn't let anything else happen to Maura. Maura didn't want to leave Jane's side with some unstable stalker trying to get to her best friend. Neither wanted to let the other woman out of their sight. Jane wasn't sure how to broach the subject of her desire to protect Maura from whatever else might happen, so she was glad that the Doctor wasn't shy about such topics.

"Will you stay with me?" Maura asked Jane after they had given their statement of the events that transpired that day. They were now sitting in Maura's office, the workday nearly over. "You don't have to, of course, I just thought a buddy system might be appropriate with the both of us being targeted." Maura started to ramble at the look of surprise that appeared on Jane's face. "I'm fully capable of protecting myself, though. My home is wired with an alarm, and the Captain said that two patrol cars would stand watch, and I have considerable expertise with some forms of combat so you don't need to-"

"Maura, shut up," Jane stopped her friend's never-ending speel. "Of course I'm gonna stay with you. I know you don't need protection, look at you!" Jane gestured to Maura's bandaged hand. "You let Chang sew you up without any pain killers and you didn't even flinch!" Jane was truly impressed by the strength of her friend.

"Did I look badass?" Maura asked with a grin. Jane chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah, Maur. You looked like a badass," Jane confirmed. "But then you used the phrase 'buddy system' so I'm really not sure what to think anymore." Jane teased her friend and Maura balled up a piece of paper to throw at Jane's head. "Maura! That was _so_ rude!" In a childlike state of elation, Maura stuck her tongue out at the Detective, which made the Detective deteriorate into a fit of laughter. "What do you mean you have '_considerable expertise'_ with some kind of combat?" Jane asked.

"Oh, I'm quite adept at sword fighting, and I happen to have a fair few such weapons at my home, purely for display, of course, but if the need arose-"

"_Why _on _Earth _do you know how to sword fight?" Jane gestured confusedly with her hands.

"I took several years' worth of fencing classes," Maura stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And I used to fantasize about being a pirate." Jane dropped her head into her hand laughing.

Maura was quick to join in and the women laughed in the release of the serious events that had overtaken their morning. It wasn't every day Maura narrowly escaped death before 9:00 AM, though it would happen again.

* * *

Jane and Maura were pressed tightly together on the ME's living room couch. The Doctor had stayed true to her word and had indeed purchased a television. After Jane had gawked at the large screen for half a minute, she turned back into her chivalrous self and insisted that Maura should choose what they would watch first. She was surprised further still when Maura had stocked her fridge with what Jane had claimed to be her favorite beer. The ME had made both purchases without Jane's knowledge and downplayed what it meant, claiming that it was no trouble at all and that she barely had to go out of her way, which just made Jane appreciate the gestures more. Jane was in awe of the humbleness of the smaller woman and enamored by the fact that the Doctor of Death cared so much for her.

That is why Jane found herself snuggled close to Maura's side watching a French documentary about the history of African Tribal dancing. That's what it seemed to be about, anyway, she didn't much care for reading the subtitles, so she'd settled for watching Maura watch the screen. The blonde paid rapt attention and absentmindedly put pieces of popcorn in her mouth every so often. Jane thought Maura must be the most adorable and breathtakingly beautiful person on the face of the Earth. She put her beer down on the coffee table and before she realized what she was doing, she'd placed her arm over the back of the couch to rest on Maura's shoulders. The smaller woman didn't pull her gaze away from the screen but automatically readjusted to be leaning more into Jane's side. Maura moved the bowl of popcorn to be settled half on each of their laps and blinked at how they had shifted. Her body had acted on its own and her mind had to catch up. It had felt like the most natural thing in the world to lean into Jane. It felt like she had been doing it for years instead of it being the first time. She glanced up at Jane's profile and grinned. Jane was adamantly looking towards the T.V, but Maura saw the hint of a smile on the brunette's lips. She rested her head down on Jane's shoulder and they sighed in unison. They were both so comfortable with each other.

* * *

**Purple ficus maxima florana** **and**** Alliamyristica Solamovitus and both made up because I know nothing about poisoning people. I hope the chapter was interesting! **


	13. Chapter 13

**Remember when I said that it would be one of the best and worst weeks of their lives? Well, it's always darkest before the dawn, so the saying goes. :P **

**I go into detail about a brutalized corpse in this chapter, just FYI. **

* * *

**Tuesday**

Jane woke with a slight crick in her next and a heavy tingling sensation in her right arm. She tried to adjust but found that she couldn't move much because there was a weight on top of her. The thought of being restrained made her eyes fly open. She blinked at the early morning sunlight that was filtering through Maura's living room windows and then glanced down. They had apparently fallen asleep while watching Maura's documentary (not surprisingly to Jane) and the ME was snuggled into Jane's side. They were reclined as much as the couch would allow, and Maura's head rested on Jane's shoulder while her hand was draped across the Detective's chest, resting over her heart. One of Maura's legs was also fitted in between her own under the blanket. Jane smiled lovingly down into Maura's face and her breath momentarily caught in her throat. In the early rays of the morning sun cascading into the room, Maura's hair and face seemed to be glowing and the peace that was clear on her face gave her an almost ethereal beauty. Jane reached up with her free hand and stroked Maura's cheek before she wrapped that arm around the smaller woman too. A small content sigh escaped the ME's lips before she began breathing evenly again. Jane smiled and tried to ignore the growing pain in the arm stuck beneath Maura's head, but could only suffer through it for so long. She released the smaller woman from the embrace and intended to gently shake Maura's shoulder to wake her, but the Doctor grumbled at the loss of contact and opened her eyes with a pout on her face. Jane couldn't help chuckling at how cute it was. The ME's eyes were beautiful in the sunlight. Maura looked around like she was confused by her living room before she withdrew her hand from Jane's chest to rub at her eyes. She grumbled a little bit more and snuggled right back into the position she'd previously found perfectly comfortable. Jane started laughing full-on at how Maura was acting and laughed further still when Maura began to chastise her.

"You're being a terrible pillow, Jane. How do you expect me to get any sleep if you keep shaking me around?" Maura's pout deepened and Jane wanted to catch the ME's lips in a kiss. She settled for defending herself instead.

"It's not _my _fault you're so cute and funny to watch in the morning!" Jane argued and then blushed at realizing what she'd just admitted to doing. It brought a smile to Maura's face though, and the Doctor responded as she opened her eyes.

"Funny, huh? Maura smiled slyly and decided to take full advantage of her current hand placement. "You think it's funny, huh?" She asked again as she moved to tickle Jane's side with her hand that wasn't wrapped in bandages. The detective yelled in surprise and immediately started to squirm and laugh, much to Maura's delight. She adored Jane's laugh.

"_Maura!" _Jane yelled between her fits of giggles. "STOP! I have to pee, stop it!" Jane squirmed herself free and moved so that she was sitting on top of the ME and she grabbed Maura by the wrists to ensure the onslaught of tickling would stop. Jane was breathing heavily, trying to catch her breath from laughing so much. Maura felt her wrists being restrained by the side of her head, and as Jane moved to straddle her, her breathing hitched and she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth. She glanced at Jane's heaving chest and up into the Detective's face, completely at the mercy of the other woman as she tried to keep control of her breathing. "If I let you go," Jane husked in her early morning rumble of a voice, "do you promise to behave yourself?" Maura felt a shiver of lust run through her body at Jane's gravelly tone and she licked her lips before she slowly nodded her agreement. She wasn't entirely sure Jane knew what she had just done to Maura's body, so she had no choice _but _to behave herself, no matter how much she longed to do the contrary. Jane leaned in and loosened her grip on Maura's wrists. She whispered, "that's what I thought," into Maura's ear before she stood up completely from the couch and sauntered off to the guest bathroom, leaving a heaving Maura Isles in a puddle of her own arousal.

Maura sat on the couch trying her best to get her breathing under control. She let her hands fall to her sides and stared up at the ceiling trying desperately to meditate. She closed her eyes to try to focus, but images of Jane's hands around her wrists, straddling her thighs filled her mind. She failed completely in her efforts not to think about exactly what else she wanted Jane's hands to do to her and whimpered in frustration at not being able to find release. She inhaled deeply and her eyes snapped open before she stood up and made her way quickly up the stairs into her own bathroom.

* * *

Jane sat in the guest bathroom, scared and aroused out of her mind, waiting for any sound that would indicate Maura had gone from the living room. She had meant only to stop her friend's onslaught of tickling, but once she saw Maura, heavy-lidded and pinned beneath her, she couldn't stop the sudden surge of arousal that shot through her core. It took all of the self-control Jane had for her to not grind her hips down into the body beneath her. As she stared down into Maura's hazel eyes, she wanted nothing more than to claim the woman beneath her. It didn't matter that she'd never been with a woman, or that she thought of Maura's body as sacred ground, Jane wanted to worship at the altar. Jane had wanted to claim Maura's lips in her own, to run her hands through Maura's gentle curls and pull. Jane shivered at the thought of kneading Maura's breasts and her tongue darted out to lick her lips when she imagined tasting the sweaty flesh of a vulnerably bare, shuddering, begging Maura Isles. Jane's eyes rolled closed and her head dropped back as she struggled to regain her composure.

She splashed cold water on her face multiple times and practiced the deep breathing exercises that usually helped to calm her down. She'd heard Maura ascend the stairs and now heard the shower running, so she dried her face and left the room in search of her cellphone. She called out to one of the cruisers guarding the house and asked that one of the officers come to the door. She gave a set of keys to the beat cop and requested that she go to the Detectives apartment to grab about a week's worth of clothes and return with Jane's car. She thanked the officer and closed the door, glad that she was able to make these kinds of requests. She could still feel the sticky wetness of her underwear and was glad she'd be getting more clothes soon; she _really _needed them. She set about making coffee the way Maura had shown her and decided to distract herself with cooking breakfast as well.

* * *

Maura's hands shook as she stood in her closet, removing the outfit she had accidentally fallen asleep in. Her whole body was shaking. She trembled at the thought of being claimed by, and in turn claiming, Jane Rizzoli. Her breathing came in short bursts as she grabbed her towels, and her eyes rolled closed as she remembered the intensity of Jane's stare. She had given up hope of regaining control of her body and was now focused exclusively on release. Jane had accidentally worked her up into a frenzy the likes of which she had never experienced, and as she stood naked in her bathroom, waiting for the shower water to heat up, she could feel her own arousal starting to spread to her inner thighs. She removed the bandages from her hand quickly. A quiet, breathy moan escaped her lips at the thought of Jane knowing what she was about to do, and Maura bit her lip and blushed as she stepped into the shower.

Maura wet her hair and body slowly, taking her time to appreciate the warmth of the steam that began to surround her. She pumped her hand full of soap and rubbed palms together before bringing them into her stomach. The sting of the soap in her wound was nothing compared to the arousal coursing through her entire body so she quickly forgot about the pain. Maura closed her eyes and pictured Jane restraining her wrists again. She gulped at the thought. She moved her soapy hands slowly down and then up her torso, pretending her own hands were bound and that the one's touching her belonged to Jane. She hung her head back and her lips parted slightly as her hands moved over her own firm breasts, and she began to slowly move her fingers around her taut nipples. She moaned and began to knead the flesh beneath her hands. She kept switching between pretending her hands were Jane's and imagining that Jane was in the room, watching her pleasure herself to thoughts of the Detective. The mere remembrance of Jane looking down at her like she was prey and being completely at the Detective's mercy made Maura's core throb with desire and she had to clench her thighs together in an effort to create some much-needed friction. She moaned again at the image of Jane staring down at her and her body trembled as she turned to remove the showerhead with one hand, continuing to tease herself with the other. Maura sprayed one of the shower walls to warm it before she leaned against it, knowing that her legs alone wouldn't be able to support her for much longer. She switched the setting of the water pressure to the one that she knew worked best for her, then slowly directed the heavy stream of water to her already wet and needy center. She bit down hard on her lip to stifle the moans that were trying to escape her. She continued to knead one of her breasts as she leaned against the wall, aiming the showerhead to where she needed it most. She slowly moved her free hand down her body and even slower still, she entered herself while maintaining water pressure on her throbbing clit. She began a rhythm of pumping and curling her fingers into herself, and as her legs began to shake she increased her speed. She did her best to keep her pleasured cries quiet but as she moved closer and closer to release she cared less and less if Jane heard her. '_Do you promise to behave yourself?' _Ran over and over in her mind in Jane's low husk. The thought of the Detective knowing what she was doing and enjoying the show is what made Maura's body begin to shake and she thrust into herself expertly as she rode out the waves of pleasure she had brought to herself with thoughts of her best friend. Her legs began to collapse underneath her as the waves of her orgasm came to an end, and she had to grip the shelving of the wall to remain standing.

Maura regained her breath and her steadiness slowly. She had no shame about her actions as it wasn't in her nature to shy away from sexual desires, no matter where they came from. She replaced the showerhead to finish her shower properly. She took her time lathering her hair and making sure she was clean as her heart rate returned to normal. She enjoyed the warm water cascading down her body as it rinsed the suds away, and she stood under the stream for an extra minute or two so she could simply enjoy the feeling of being satiated and clean.

She dried her body and applied a solvent to her stitches and wrapped more white bandages around her finger and palm to cover the length of the wound. She then moved to the closet to pick out her clothes. It was nice to walk into her closet and actually be able to focus on her attire; picking her outfit was one of her favorite parts of the day. She decided that she felt like wearing pants that day instead of a skirt or dress, so she pulled on a tastefully tight pair of black slacks, a burgundy blouse that was flowy at the top but tightened around her waist, and she coupled it with a beige blazer that matched well with one of her favorite pairs of heels... Every pair of heels she owned was one of her favorite pairs, but that wasn't the point. She smiled and nodded approvingly at her choices before she moved back to the bathroom to dry and style her hair and get ready for work.

She exited her bedroom to the smell of something delicious cooking, and she clicked down the stairs a tad faster than she normally would. She was suddenly starving and flushed a little bit as she realized that her activities in the shower might have something to do with that hunger. She walked into the kitchen to see Jane moving about the space like she lived there. The thought brought a smile to Maura's face. Jane became aware of Maura's presence and smiled before she handed her a mug of already mixed coffee. Maura tilted her head curiously as she took the drink from Jane, and as she took a sip, she realized that Jane must have paid attention when they'd made their coffee together last time; it tasted perfect. Maura let a small hum of pleasure escape as she sipped the beverage, and noticed Jane's cheeks flush at the sound. For the first time since the beginning of their friendship, Maura let herself hope that it might be possible that Jane was just as affected by their connection, that she may also desire something more. Maura took a deep breath to steady herself and was distracted again by the smell of food.

"Something smells _amazing_," Maura spoke, realized her voice came out a little more sultrily than she'd intended and cleared her throat before she continued. "What did you make?" Maura tried to move closer to the stove to get a peek but Jane shook her head, grabbed the ME by the shoulders and directed her to one of the stools at the island table.

"Relax and drink your coffee," Jane squeezed the shoulders beneath her hands as she spoke. "I'll take care of the rest." The Detective leaned forward slightly to place a quick kiss to the back of Maura's head. She blushed as she turned to continue to prepare breakfast, but she really couldn't help herself from stealing the quick peck. Maura looked stunning. Jane's body was still in a state of tension and she had to work hard to keep her thoughts under control when she looked at her best friend. Jane sipped her coffee as she waited for the eggs to finish cooking. She got the plates ready while everything was finishing up. Maura sat happily watching Jane, patiently waiting for breakfast and pleased that the Detective seemed to want to take care of her. Jane placed orange slices on the side of each plate and built the breakfast sandwiches she'd found the ingredients for. She filled in the rest of the space on the plates with homefries and smiled. She thought the overall look was good. She turned the stove off, placed the food on the island and sat beside Maura. The ME looked down at her plate and smiled over to Jane. Maura was sure she was grinning like an idiot, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She knew that Jane had to peel and cut the potatoes by hand to make the home fries because there were never any premade ones in her house. She knew that Jane had to slice the orange and the tomato, which meant Jane was comfortable enough in her home to find the required knife and cutting board. She realized that the Detective had only used the egg whites, forgoing the yolk. Maura had never told Jane that she didn't like eating the yolks, the Detective had simply assumed correctly. It filled the ME's heart to have somebody put so much thought and effort into understanding her. She grinned down at the leaves of kale that Jane had put in both of their breakfast sandwiches and she felt silly for letting a simple breakfast make her feel so loved. She looked over to Jane again who was looking nervously down into her own plate as if she was worried Maura wouldn't like it. Maura leaned over and placed a lingering kiss to the Detectives cheek.

"Thank you, Jane," Maura murmured into Jane's ear before she pulled away from her friend's face and began to eat. Maura had noticed Jane's sharp intake of breath this time and also noted the slight shaking in her friend's hands. The actions added more kindling to the fire of Maura's hope, and the ME decided to test the effect she had on her best friend. Maura used her peripheral vision to wait for Jane to be looking at her before she would lick her lips, then she would make eye contact to confirm that Jane's eyes would dilate, which they did. The ME sighed every once in a while, and as she bit into her food, she would release pleased hums, purposely intending for the sound to sit right on the line of impropriety. She caught the shudder that seemed to run down Jane's spine and decided that her hypothesis was correct when Jane closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out in a huff before she could continue to eat. Maura grinned down into her food and decided to stop her experiment; happy to have been proven correct. Jane was sexually attracted to her, she was sure of it. Science couldn't lie. She let the Detective continue to eat in peace. Jane had a tendency to eat a lot faster than Maura, so it was no surprise when the Detective had cleared her plate first. Jane downed the rest of her coffee as she stood up and then cleared her throat. She moved away from the table with her dishes and brought them back to the sink, which she began to fill with water. Maura appreciated the gesture but wanted to be just as helpful and caring as Jane had been, so she protested. "Jane, you made breakfast, let me do that, please."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Jane replied in a tone that was slightly huskier than her usual one, which only confirmed Maura's theory more. "You're still eating anyway, and your hand is messed up." Jane smiled over her shoulder at the ME before she began to wash the dishes. As Maura finished her meal, she finally let herself imagine what her life would be like if she and Jane entered a relationship. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she pictured waking up every morning and getting to see Jane's crazy mane of curls. She imagined eating breakfast together as often as possible. She smiled at the thought of stolen kisses at work, and longer ones in the bedroom. She hummed a content sigh as she looked down into what remained of her coffee and her eyes teared up slightly at the notion that it was possible to spend the rest of her life with someone who cared enough to learn how she liked to drink the beverage. The way Jane showed she cared made Maura feel more loved, understood and valued than she had ever felt in her life. But if Jane was equally attracted to the ME and hadn't acted on that attraction, Maura deduced that something must be holding the Detective back. If the two women were to move beyond friendship, Maura knew that Jane would have to be the one to overcome whatever it was that was stopping her, and make the first move. The ME finished eating and decided that she would have to come up with ways that would help Jane take what she wanted, without it being obvious. Maura was content with her plan of action and stood to bring her now empty dishes to the sink.

"Jane, I just want you to know how much I appreciate you going to the trouble of making breakfast," Maura put her dishes on the counter beside the sink and placed her hand on Jane's shoulder as she spoke. "My coffee was perfect. I also noticed that you used only the egg whites… How did you know that I don't like to eat the yolks?" Jane grinned down at Maura and shrugged in response.

"Lucky guess," it was just like Jane to downplay how much effort she put into things. "It was no trouble at all, really. I just appreciated the fact that you went out of your way to get my favorite beer, and _hello, _a _giant television, _just to prove how much you… you care about me." Jane blushed and shrugged again before she continued. "I know I'm not the best with words so I figured I'd try to show you with my actions that I care about you too, just as much." She didn't take her eyes off of the dishes as she finished her sentiment and Maura thought it was adorable that the mean, confident, badass Jane Rizzoli had been reduced to such kind shyness.

"Well, I think I hear your actions loud and clear," Maura moved forward to embrace Jane from behind. It was a little bit over the line of friendship but she figured she could get away with it based on the nature of their conversation. Jane was grinning like a fool and she felt like she had entered one of the happiest moments of her life.

"You can't _hear _actions, Doctor Isles," Jane joked, and the pair of them started chuckling together, both happily content to stay in this moment of bliss for as long as possible.

And that's when Jane's phone rang.

"Can you get that, Maur? My hands are wet. Just put it on speaker," Jane used her head to indicate towards the coffee table and Maura moved to get the phone. She returned quickly and placed the cell next to the sink where Jane continued the dishes. "Rizzoli," Jane spoke at the phone once Maura had answered at tapped the speaker logo.

"_Jane, we've got a body… It's…Is Maura still with you?" _Frost's voice rang out of the device.

"Yeah, she's still here. Why are you acting so weird, Frost, we get bodies all the time. It's like, our whole job." Jane couldn't keep herself from lightly joking because her morning had been so perfect.

"_Oh thank God... Jane, you know that officer you sent to your house this morning? The one who was supposed to get your clothes and go back in your car?" _

"...Yeah. She okay?" Jane was starting to get worried so she withdrew her hands from the water and Maura handed her a towel.

"_Yeah, yeah she's fine. It's just… When she went to go put your stuff in your car, there was someone in the front seat already…" _

"Jesus, Frost, can you spit it out please?" Jane was starting to panic over his weird and cryptic responses.

"_Sorry, yeah, so she opened your driver door and she found the body. Oh God, Jane, we thought it was Maura." _It was clear in the tone of Frost's voice that he had been trying very hard not to cry. _"But you're sure she's okay, right? Can you see her now? Can you just tell me that you know for sure that she's alright?" _Maura was touched to hear that a man she considered to be a very dear friend cared about her in an equal amount.

"I'm right here, Barry, I'm completely fine," Maura spoke down to the phone.

"_Thank God," _He repeated and his deep, steadying breath could be heard through the phone. "_Listen, I'm gonna call Ray to get the car and the body towed to the evidence garage at the precinct. The snow covered any tracks that might have been here so... Are you both still good to work on this case? It's uh… It's a pretty bad one." _The women made eye contact with each other and they both saw the determination to continue to work the case to find who was threatening them. Maura responded for both of them.

"We're going to keep working the case, Barry. Rizzoli's don't give in to fear," Jane nodded proudly and responded in kind.

"We're gonna meet you there as soon as possible, Frost."

"_Okay," _He responded and hung up the phone.

* * *

When Jane arrived with Maura to the precinct's evidence garage, she noticed that many of the other workers seemed to do double-takes of Maura. As they approached the vehicle, Jane realized why. The front driver's side door was open and Jane could see very soft looking, honey-blonde hair styled down in loose curls. Upon further inspection, the Detective noticed that the dead woman was wearing the exact outfit Maura had worn the day before, except the clothes were torn and incredibly dirty. Fastened to the lapel of the coat very similar to the one the ME was wearing, was a boutonniere made out of a black rose, an orange lily, and a purple petunia, with yet another note. Jane stepped closer to look at the woman's face and was taken aback by what she saw. The victim had been severely beaten and her face had multiple bruises and lacerations. Her nose had been broken and even her jaw hung crookedly from her head at an odd angle that turned Jane's stomach. The wounds continued down her neck and disappeared underneath the victim's clothes. Jane looked at the dead woman's hands and saw that the fingers were all broken and that the deep bruising existed there too. She turned back to look at Maura and saw that the sweet, goofy ME that she adored had been replaced by Doctor Maura Isles, Queen of the Dead. Jane stepped back to let the ME assess the body.

The room was eerily silent as detectives, lab techs, and officers watched Maura. The people of the precinct seemed to be in a heightened state of disbelief when Maura commented on the scene before her, analyzing the wound patterns on a woman that could have been her.

"Multiple severe lacerations to the face, neck, and hands," Maura spoke into the silence. "There is no blood on the clothes or in the vehicle. The victim was wounded elsewhere before being staged in the vehicle. The visible bruising is in several states of healing meaning that she was beaten repeatedly both pre and postmortem. There is currently no obvious cause of death," Maura straightened and turned away from the vehicle. "Somebody get me some tweezers, please." A lab tech moved forward immediately with the requested item. Maura leaned back towards the victim and willed her hand not to shake as she delicately removed the note from the flowers. She backed away from the vehicle once more and Jane was by her side. They opened the note to see a picture of Maura from the morning before, holding two coffee cups as she exited her vehicle.

"That's right outside my apartment." Jane pointed to the familiar tree and then to the trunk of her own car in the image. "It looks like this was taken right from my front steps… Maura…" Jane looked over to her friend and saw her eyes darting back and forth across the note. Reading. Jane followed suit.

_Doctor Isles,_

_I wanted to show you what I have in store for you._

"Jane," Maura looked up into the Detective's confused face. "Please have the body sent to the morgue when you're finished, Detective." Maura began to step away from Jane but the brunette moved in front of her to stop her.

"Maur, you okay? You want me to send Frankie down there with you? Just in case?" Jane whispered so nobody else could hear, and looked down at her friend with concern in her face. Maura was going to decline, not wanting to seem weak, but her eyes flickered back to the poor woman in the car and she nodded before walking away. Jane immediately sent the text to her brother.

* * *

Maura walked into the autopsy suite to find Susie prepping the table and Frankie sitting on one of the stools near the counter absently spinning on the top. Maura thought he looked bored.

"I'm sorry to ask you to go to the trouble of being here, Frankie," She said to him. He snapped his head up and immediately grinned at her.

"Are you kidding? I get to see a large part of how homicides are solved," He shrugged. "And I get to spend the day with you. Not a bad way to make money," He smiled at her and Maura could see Jane in his face. They had the same eyes and their smiles were similar. Both Rizzoli's had a way of brightening up a room with their mere presence when they wanted to, and Maura appreciated that he was there trying to do that for her.

The body arrived within the hour and Maura set to work. Everything seemed quieter that day, and her voice almost hurt her own ears every time she spoke into the recorder. The wounds she'd seen on the victim's face and hands were also covering the rest of her body, and the attacker had carved 'DR. STEEL' into the woman's chest. It was one of the most brutalized bodies Maura had ever received. She separated herself from her emotions and she got the sensation of her caring self watching the autopsy occur from a third party perspective. The cause of death ended up being asphyxiation; the attacker had stuffed dozens of flower petals down the victim's throat to the point where she couldn't breathe. It would have been a slow and painful death.

Maura had to spend the entire day distancing herself from her emotions as she ran lab tests on the clothes, wrote her reports and assessed the injuries of the victim. It was incredibly frustrating to her that, despite the overwhelming amount of blunt force trauma and lacerations to the victim, she got no closer to finding any evidence that might help with the case during her shift.

Jane visited for a short while in the afternoon.

"It's gotta be the Doorman, right?" The brunette was pacing in Maura's office. "He was there when you got out of your car, and you didn't mention anybody else. I forgot that you'd mentioned seeing someone yesterday." Jane rubbed her scarred hands, and that's when Maura clued into just how worried Jane was. The Detective plopped herself down in one of Maura's chairs and let out a sigh of frustration. "Do you remember what he looks like?" Jane hadn't had any more luck than Maura had, and the doorman theory was all they had to work off of.

"He was a little shorter than you. Muscular, I think, but it's hard to tell because he had a big coat on, and a scarf was covering most of his features. I'd never seen him before. Jane, why didn't he just take me then?" Maura glanced down at the file she'd been working on.

"Thank God he didn't Maura." Jane rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"But that poor woman… She just _looked_ like me." Maura's voice cracked only slightly and Jane's head snapped up at the sound. She stood and moved around the desk to take Maura's face in her hands.

"Hey, it's not your fault, okay?" Jane pleaded with her eyes. "He already had her, Maur. You said she'd been being beaten for at least a week, right, and then for at least three days after death? If he had taken you, it wouldn't have helped her. She was already dead, Maura." Jane understood how her friend was feeling, she'd experienced that guilt many times, but the Detective needed her best friend to know that it was not her fault. The rational part of Maura's brain knew that Jane was right, but she still felt to blame for what that poor woman had suffered. Jane could tell. "Maura, you listen to me and hear what I'm telling you because it's not easy for me to say... When I was kidnapped, I had to watch Hoyt rape and torture a woman right in front of me for hours until she died, and then he still wasn't done with her. For weeks after I was rescued I couldn't eat because she never would again. I couldn't feel joy without guilt because I didn't save her, so since she could never experience happiness again, neither could I... But Maura, it wasn't my fault that she was tied down in that basement, it was _his. _Just like it's not _your _fault that woman had to suffer. It's the _Doorman's_ fault, Maura. Do you understand me? It is _not _your fault." Maura took a deep breath and nodded. She reached up to caress the side of Jane's face. The ME knew how difficult it was for Jane to even think about Hoyt's basement, let alone talk so freely about it. It meant a great deal to her that Jane was willing to be vulnerable so that Maura might feel better.

"Thank you," Maura whispered and they pressed their foreheads together, Maura sitting in her desk chair, and Jane kneeling in front of her. They let their hands drop from each other's faces and intertwined their fingers together.

"We're gonna get through it, Maura," Jane whispered, "We always do."

But they made no more progress in the case that day and the pair left the precinct in silence.

* * *

They'd gotten home and one of the patrol officers handed Jane a bag of supplies from her apartment. The pair of women got ready for bed quickly. Jane had gone to the guest bathroom to shower the day off of her and Maura sat on the couch in silence after changing into a silk pajama set, willing any feeling to come back into her body. She'd pushed her emotions so far from herself that day that all that remained was a loud numbness in her body. She didn't even hear Jane make her way back down the stairs.

"Maura," the ME jumped at the break in silence. "You ready for bed?" Jane stood to the side of the couch and Maura could see the worry lines on her face. Maura nodded and stood up. She glanced at the kitchen counter and saw the remains of the dishes Jane hadn't gotten the chance to finish. She couldn't believe that she'd had one of the greatest mornings of her entire life and that the day had turned into such a nightmare.

Maura led Jane up the stairs as she had the first night the Detective slept over, but as they reached the top, instead of leading her friend into the guest bedroom, Maura turned and grabbed Jane's hand.

"Jane…" Maura looked up into her friend's eyes, and the Detective immediately understood the look she was seeing. A single tear seeped out of the corner of Maura's eye and Jane knew that her friend didn't want to be alone. Maura stepped backward into her room and pulled Jane with her to the bed. More tears started to fall from her eyes as she turned the sheets to lay down. Maura rolled to face away from Jane and tucked her knees into herself as her shoulders began to shake with sobs, the weight of the day finally catching up with her. Jane delicately moved in behind the blonde and wrapped her arm around her, finding the uninjured hand to hold. Maura wept for the woman who had been brutally tortured for weeks simply for looking similar to her. She cried for the lack of progress they made in the case that day, and she cried for Jane, who didn't deserve to have another man obsess over the brunette's every move. She cried for the justice of the world that had not yet been served, and for not being able to find anything that would keep Jane safe from any harm the Doorman might cause her best friend. She wept while she clung to the arm that was around her, and Jane silently held her, knowing that was all that the ME needed.

* * *

**For those who are wondering, yes I do know who the Doorman is! You'll all know soon enough :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**An extra-long chapter with this update! I'm going to continue to focus more on Maura and Jane after this, but the trauma was necessary. :P As always I'm loving the reviews! Thank you! **

* * *

**Wednesday**

_Hey Pointdexter,_

_I left early to get a headstart on the case today, I guess we got a couple of leads going for us! Night crew came through! _

_I met your TURTLE this morning? Why didn't you warn me, I almost had a heart attack! WHY DO YOU HAVE A TURTLE MAURA? _

_I filled your water bottle for you! Remember last week when you went on a THIRTY MINUTE rant about the importance of rehydrating lost water content in the body? Drink up, nerd. _

_-Gumshoe Gal_

Maura read the note that lay where Jane should have been. She was ecstatic to hear of a break in the case. She laughed at the thought of Bass surprising Jane. It hadn't occurred to her that they hadn't been properly introduced, he'd been hiding under the heat lamp in her office a lot lately, but it was good to hear he'd gotten into an adventuring mood. She glanced at her bedside table to see that her water bottle was indeed there and full. Jane had a very intriguing way of showing how much she cared, and what Maura found funny was her friend's apparent need to cover up her kindness with gentle bullying. Maura had spent most of the night crying, but the Detective still found a way to make her morning a good one, and she wasn't even there. There wasn't an aspect of her life that Jane hadn't improved upon with her friendship. Maura decided that she would do her damndest to return the favor in full.

She arrived at work with a tray of six coffees. One of the recruits held the door open for her as she struggled with the beverages. She was going to go straight up to the bullpen, but a short and stout woman was loudly demanding access to the building, so it slowed her path.

"I'm just here to bring them lunch! Who are you to keep a mother from feeding her children?" The woman was shouting to the new security officer, who looked affronted, but unwilling to move. One look at the woman told Maura everything she needed to know about the situation. The slight Bostonian accent sounded exactly like Frankie's. The woman moved her free hand in the air in the same exasperated manor Jane did. The huff and eye roll combination could only be the work of a Rizzoli, and Maura remembered Jane mentioning that her mother could be overbearing. Maura thought it was sweet that the woman cared enough about her children to bring them lunch at work, so she walked over to see if she might help.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Maura Isles, you must be Jane and Frankie's mother." Maura smiled at the woman, feeling slightly guilty that her hands were too full to offer a shake.

"Yes, I'm Angela Rizzoli… How could you tell?" Angela seemed curious but smiled politely back to the ME.

"They gesticulate in the same way you do and the cadence of their tones are clearly derived from yours." At the blank look on Angela's face, Maura knew that she wasn't understood so she thought of how Jane might phrase her meaning. "Your children's hand movements and voices are very similar to your own." Angela smiled in understanding.

"I'll take that as a compliment, Doctor," Angela laughed. Maura smiled, it seems that Angela's children got some of their humor from her as well.

"As you should. I'm quite fond of both of your children," Maura looked at the security officer and missed the slight curiosity of Angela's face. The eldest Rizzoli had been looking for someone to set Frankie up with and already liked the small, polite woman. "Shane, you may allow this woman into the building, I'll take responsibility for her. Give her a visitor's pass, please." The security officer did what he was told and smiled at the women.

"Let me take one of those for you!" Angela took one of the trays of coffee Maura had and placed it on top of the lunchbox she was carrying. She saw her daughter's name on one of the lids and smiled at the woman next to her. "It's the least I can do for you getting me passed that new guard. Where's Andy gone? He's such a polite young man, I always wanted to set him up with Janie."

"He's on vacation with his husband. They just adopted twins, so trying to set him up with Jane might not be the best idea," Maura laughed and so did Angela after her initial shock wore off.

"I guess not! Good for them! I'm glad people… like_ that_ can get married and have babies." The older woman said. "Speaking of my daughter and men, do you know who's got her all fluttery?" Angela nudged Maura with her elbow a couple of times.

"Fluttery? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." Maura replied and pressed the up button for the lift.

"You know," Angela began, "she looks at her phone and smiles at her texts. She's been one hell of a lot less cranky the last few weeks. At first, I thought she was just happy to finally be back at the job she loves, but… nobody smiles at a text about a dead body no matter _how much _they love to solve murders. Is there anybody new working here that wasn't here before she took leave?" Angela looked at Maura curiously and the ME got the distinct impression that the Rizzoli matriarch could force the truth out of her. The ME had never been on the end of a look quite like the one on the older woman's face. She couldn't lie, but if she could she definitely would _not _try to lie to that face. Maura knew that Jane hadn't been seeing any men in her time back at work, and with the way they'd been acting towards each other, especially recently, Maura had the hope that Jane was getting 'fluttery' about her. She smiled at the obvious solution to her inability to lie.

"No, I have no idea what man could be making Jane behave that way," Maura stepped off of the elevator with Jane's mother, happy at the loss of Angela's 'look'. The older woman huffed slightly but followed Maura to the bullpen where Jane, Frost, Frankie, and Korsak were all seated and staring at a whiteboard covered in photos that Angela probably shouldn't see. Maura was encouraged at what was on the board though; it seemed that a rare mold had been found in one of the victim's wounds and that the detectives were currently narrowing down their options. She had a fleeting thought about how the team she had built were such dedicated and detail-oriented people. She took a mental note to personally thank the individuals who had stayed late to analyze all of the many, _many_ swabs she had taken during the autopsy. She also noticed a bill of sale for a boutique that she shopped at dated for Monday. The ME cleared her throat as she got closer to get her friend's attention and both of Angela's children lept out of their seats to quickly turn the board around.

"Ma!" Frankie looked at his mother, stunned. "You said you were gonna wait until _after _work! It's nine in the morning!"

"What do you think you're doing here?" Jane, just as surprised as her brother, stared at her mother.

"Well," Angela started indignantly. "You'd figure your own flesh and blood might be a little more appreciative of you bringing them lunch on a busy day!" Angela rolled her eyes and placed the lunchbox and the tray of coffee down on a desk out of reach of her children. "Janie, I can't believe you didn't tell me you have _another _stalker!" She shouted in front of everybody and Jane glared at her brother.

"She weeded it out of me!" Frankie defended himself and Jane moved to swat him on the arm. "Ma, it's too early for lunch!" He chastised his mother as if it would make Jane less angry at him for tattling, and failed in his attempts to block Jane's swatting.

"Breakfast, then!" Angela waved off his concern. "Jane, stop hitting your brother. I brought peanut butter and fluff for everyone." Angela turned back to the lunchbox. She began to unzip it while Maura handed people their drinks. Angela noticed that all the men had to take the extra sugar and cream packets to make the coffee the way they liked them, but when Maura handed a cup to Jane, the pair just smiled warmly at each other and Jane immediately took a sip. Jane _always _used cream and sugar, so hers must have been ready for her. The Rizzoli matriarch thought that was very interesting, indeed. Angela held her tongue and handed the sandwiches out and she noticed that Jane immediately offered half of her food to Maura, who took it curiously as if the pair shared food all the time.

"What is this white substance?" The Doctor leaned on Jane's desk and looked down at her half.

"It's fluff," Jane deadpanned but her explanation only made the ME look more confused.

"Like, downy particles of cotton?" Maura glanced unbelievingly between the food and her friend. Everyone else in the group tried their best to hide their amusement. Of all the things that the Doctor knew, she'd never learned about fluff. Jane gave them all a warning glare; she would fight the whole squad before they made Maura feel stupid, she didn't care if her mother was watching.

"It's marshmallow, Maura," Jane explained through her own surprise at her friend's lack of knowledge and tried to make Maura feel less embarrassed with sass. "And the brown substance it peanut butter which is-"

"Yes, okay Jane, I do know the brown substa-"

"What, they didn't have fluff in your fancy pants boarding school?" Jane asked, amused at her friend studying the sandwich as if it were a scientific discovery. Maura shook her head and took a tentative bite. Once again, her eyes grew wide at the flavor of a new food Jane was introducing her to.

"Mmmm, it's _really _good!" The ME exclaimed as she took another bite. Jane joined in with the groups giggling this time and placed one of her hands on Maura's back for a moment before she sat back down at her desk. Angela watched her children as she always did, and she did some detecting of her own and she had some questions. She called Frankie over to her and the two Rizzolis walked into the hallway, leaving the core team of workers to themselves. "I should get going, I got Susie a coffee too and I don't want it to get cold." Jane nodded her understanding, her mouth was full of sandwich. As Maura leaned forward to get the coffee off of Jane's desk, she had to reach across the Detective. There was an almost magnetic pull between the women and before either of them had the cognisant function to realize what the were doing, they had both leaned in to quickly peck each other on the cheek. Jane turned back to her computer to continue to work and Maura was halfway across the room by the time either of them realized what had happened. It was a thoughtless, completely unexpected action that they had never done, but it felt as though they'd done it thousands of times. It felt as though they'd do it thousands more.

Maura slowed her pace slightly as she processed, but she kept walking and bit her bottom lip while she grinned. Jane's eyes widened and she stared at her screen as she heard Maura's heels falter and click slowly away from her desk. She looked up at Frosst and Korsak who were both smiling widely at her, then Korsak wordlessly handed Frost a twenty. She ducked her head below her computer screen to blush in peace. They knew better than to tease her just then. Jane lifted the mousepad on her desk. She had hidden the sunshine plumeria Maura had given to her under it when nobody was looking and it was now pressed flat. She smiled down at the white and yellow flower as she thought about what had just happened between her and Maura. She never felt so girly in her life. She never felt so happy before either.

* * *

Maura walked around the corner leading to the hallway feeling positively giddy. She was in such a state of bliss in fact, that she almost bumped into Angela and Frankie.

"Ma! I'm just not interested in her and she likes somebody else anyway, who's a woman, by the way, and-" The pair of Rizzoli's stopped talking at the sight of the Doctor.

"Oh!" Maura's smile hardly faded from her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you, I was distracted!"

"Yeah, I could see that, hon," Angela gave Maura a knowing look, but it went right over the Doctor's head.

"Ma, leave her alone, will ya?" Frankie rolled his eyes at his mother. "You still have to go yell at Jane, remember?" He was sure that his comment would distract his mother and save Maura from certain doom, but he was wrong.

"So," Angela eyed the Doctor with her 'mom eyes'. "You don't know of any men that have an interest in my daughter, huh?" Frankie tried to signal to Maura that she should tread carefully with her reply, but she only looked at him in a confused manner as he swished his hands back and forth behind his mother's back. She didn't know the universal signal for 'stop talking about this' because she'd never had any siblings, so she responded.

"Yes, that's correct," she smiled, still proud of herself for her discretion.

"Ma!" Frankie stepped in between the women and effectively blocked Maura from responding further with his not so subtle maneuver. "Doctor Isles is very busy. Plus she's still got an extra coffee for somebody so _she should go_." He looked pointedly at his friend and she finally understood the situation. Or she thought she did. She figured Jane must not like it when her mother spoke to her friends about her personal life, so she smiled politely and agreed that she should go and deliver the coffee. Frankie all but pushed his mother back into the squad room and the last thing Maura heard as the elevator doors closed was Angela complaining that 'she'd had the time to drop coffee off for Jane'. She grinned to herself again. She felt silly. There was no other way to describe it. She knew rationally that the feelings of attraction were chemicals surging through her body. She could scientifically explain every emotion and feeling that she had when she thought about her best friend, but she couldn't for the life of her_ describe_ how it felt. She spent the entire ride down to the morgue looking for words to put to how she felt but she couldn't come up with anything that described it accurately enough for her. The ding from the doors pulled her from her thoughts and she went to find Susie.

The criminalist was organizing the filing cabinets. They had to keep physical copies of autopsy reports in the morgue for a specific amount of time after the case was closed, and then they had to digitalize the results before they could bring the folder down to the records room. It was incredibly tedious work in comparison to what they usually did, so Maura was glad she'd chosen that day to bring her newest potential friend a coffee.

"Good morning, Senior Criminalist Chang." If the Doctor was any happier she might have sung it. Susie looked up curiously to her boss. "Would you like coffee?"

"Oh!" Susie stood from the stool she was on and took the beverage. She was surprised, to say the least. She was used to being curious and surprised, but not by Maura Isles. Her boss was a steady and meticulous creature of habit, so it was strange after months of exclusive professionalism, to suddenly be offered a coffee. Especially after being addressed by her title instead of her name. "Thank you?" Maura chuckled at the confusion of Susie's face.

"Senior Criminalist - May I call you Susie, your title is quite a mouthful for the purpose of this conversation," Maura smiled politely at Susie and the Criminalist pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and nodded. "Thank you. I decided that it might be appropriate to… add a layer of acquaintanceship to our workplace relationship. After you sewed my hand, I felt as if I'd been missing out on what might be a rather good workplace friendship. It might be nice for two likeminded individuals to expand upon an already amicable association. Do you agree?" She spoke as if they were in a business meeting instead of discussing whether or not they should be friends.

"Of course, Doctor Isle-

"You may call me Maura unless you feel it would be prudent to use my title." Maura interrupted but then gestured for Susie to continue.

"Maura, then," Susie smiled. "I would be delighted to have a friend that is just as interested in mycotoxins and saprotrophs as I am. It's surprising how few people wish to discuss such topics!" Maura smiled widely at her new friend.

"Quite!" Maura agreed excitedly. "Mucoromycota and zoopagomycota are endlessly fascinating!"

The two scientists spent a large part of their morning talking about their favorite fungi and molds while they tag-teamed the filing cleanup. Maura was delighted to be able to speak to somebody about a scientific topic that she enjoyed and have them not only understand but also give back in equal measure. It was riveting. She decided that she'd made the right choice in bringing Susie a coffee. By the time noon rolled around, the pair had moved from mold to composting to gardening, and the women found that they had much in common with each other. Jane entered the morgue intending to ask Maura to go to lunch and smiled as she watched her friend and Susie talk about hydroponics; whatever the hell that was.

"It's nice to see you coming out of your shell," Jane finally decided that she was too hungry to wait any longer. "Oh! Shell! Maura, why the fu-rig do you have a turtle running rampant in your house? I tripped over him when I went downstairs this morning! I almost _died!_" Susie laughed at Jane's outburst. She'd met Bass on a couple of occasions when he was apparently too under the weather to be left home alone. Susie was also interested to learn that the Detective had been spending time at Maura's house, very comfortably, it would seem. Jane scowled at Susie but the Criminalist could only stifle her grin so much. Maura was offended.

"Tripped _over him? _Jane, did you scare him?" Maura stood from her stool. "He's been so subdued lately with the cold, I don't want him to keep hiding out in my office."

"Did I scare _him?_" Jane pointed to herself. "Maura, _I_ should be the one hiding out in your office, he's a menace!" Susie chuckled at their bickering and decided she ought to leave the room. She offered a 'see ya' to the ME and stood from her stool. She remembered the conversation she'd had with the Detective a few days prior when Jane was very interested as to whether Maura had considered an outing to be a date or not. Now the Criminalist had an idea _why_ Jane had been so curious and Susie found herself hoping that the two women might get together. She grinned on her way out of the morgue, bringing some files to their new home.

"He is not a menace!" Maura scolded. "He's very sweet, Jane, you just need to get to know him! I've had him since he was the size of a baseball." Maura smiled and raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"Don't you dare drag the Red Sox into this just so you can convince me to like your amphibian friend." Jane tried to be just as stern but she was losing her nerve at the way Maura cocked her eyebrow.

"My _tortoise_ is a _reptile_!" Maura corrected. "His name is Bass. He is an African spurred tortoise."

"Tortoise, Shmortoise." Jane waved her off. "He's got it out for me, Maur. Oh, and so does my mother, by the way. She chewed me out in front of the whole squad! You should have heard her. But she just _loves you. _First, she got mad that the new desk jockey wouldn't let her in," Jane began to count on her fingers. "Then she yelled at me, _yelled,_ about how it's _my fault_ some psycho killer is after me. She told Frankie what a_ good boy _he is after that, and _then _she asked me why I couldn't be more like '_that lovely, well-dressed Doctor with the coffee and the dimples.'" _Jane rolled her eyes and Maura smiled. "No, put those dimples away, Maura, I'm mad at them." This only served to make the Doctor giggle and Jane crossed her arms.

"I think your mother is lovely, Jane." The Detective scoffed. "No, really. I think she's sweet. She obviously cares about you." Maura smiled and Jane huffed.

"Yeah, well it's easy for_ you_ to say, she's forcing me to go shopping with her as a punishment. _Shopping _Maura! I _hate _shopping." Jane stomped her foot and her shoulders drooped in defeat.

"Jane," was all Maura needed to say to convey how ridiculous she thought the other woman was acting, and how entertained she was by it.

"Give me a sick note, Maura." Jane pleaded with the Doctor rather lamely. Maura looked away from Jane's pout with a smile, and the Detective admired the dimples on the blonde's face. She could never actually be mad at that smile.

"I can offer you a death certificate." Maura joked. Jane seemed to consider before nodding.

"Close enough," the Detective said with a shrug. Maura chuckled and to Jane's surprise, the ME moved to one of the drawers of the morgue to pull out a toe tag. The Doctor scribbled on the small piece of paper before she walked over to Jane and tucked it into the breast pocket of her friend's blouse.

"Read it if you want to run from the boutiques." Maura patted the note she just put in the pocket and let her hand still over Jane's heart. It was in that moment, Maura looking at her own hand on Jane's chest and the brunette gazing down upon Maura's face, that Jane realized the implications of Maura's hand placement. Jane found that instead of embarrassment, she once again felt a sense of calm and security envelop her entire being. She smiled crookedly down at Maura before she slowly placed her hand above the ME's. Maura looked up into Jane's eyes, smiling lightly in return, as they held their hands above the Detectives rapidly beating heart.

Jane realized, slightly nervously, that Maura both literally and figuratively held her heart at that moment. The thought terrified and invigorated her. Maura was everything that Jane had been missing in her life and the Detective felt rather stupid for not _detecting_ what her feelings meant earlier. She knew she loved Maura, but it was this moment, down in the morgue of all places, that she realized she was in love with her best friend. It was as if her life so far had been an incomplete puzzle, but as she stood holding Maura's hand to her chest, all the missing pieces fell into place. Something just clicked.

Jane felt certain that the connection the two women shared had advanced from friendship into something more, but she was uncertain if Maura felt similarly. Jane could hazard a guess of course, as she would with a case, but how could she _know_. How could she attain a Maura Isles level of certainty before she acted? Jane smiled and remembered how they'd both leaned into each other's cheeks that morning. Jane licked her lips and they parted slightly. She noticed Maura's eyes flicker down, having noticed the movement of Jane's mouth and the ME bit her own bottom lip in return. The Detective moved slightly closer to Maura, who tilted her head up to gaze into Jane's eyes, searching. Jane wrapped her free hand around Maura's waist, drawing their bodies tightly together. Jane felt Maura shudder at the pressure. Maura reached up with her own free hand and traced her thumb across Jane's bottom lip before she tangled her fingers in the dark unruly curls of her best friend. Slowly they began to lean in.

Jane had never been so angry to hear the sound of her phone indicate Frost's ringtone. Maura jumped slightly at the sound before the pair of women removed their hands from each other.

"Rizzoli!" Jane barked into the phone, glaring angrily at the floor. Her face quickly changed from frustrated to serious and then to a look Maura had seen many times before. It was the look Jane got when she knew she was about to close in on something or someone. That look always reminded Maura of wolves finally closing in on their prey and it sent a shiver down her spine every time she saw it. "On my way," Jane growled and hung up, clipping the cell back onto her kit belt. "We got a lead, Maur, I gotta go." Jane pointed with her thumb towards the elevator. Maura didn't want the Detective to leave because of Jane's use of evasion and running as a distraction technique.

"Jane, I don't..." Maura didn't know how to articulate how she was feeling, but Jane seemed to understand. The Detective moved closer to Maura again and lifted her hand to cup the ME's cheek. She caressed the soft skin beneath her fingers and longed to touch more.

"Don't worry, Maur. I'm not gonna run from this." Jane dropped her hand again and left to meet up with her partner, stopping at the doors to glance back at Maura with a wave and a smile.

Maura tried to breathe. She stood there analyzing for more than half an hour. She was happy and nervous about the seeming certainty that she and Jane would be developing their relationship even further. She decided to change into her black scrubs and runners and go to the lab to see if she could help with any of the processing that was going on in there. She emerged from her office after changing and jumped at the sound of the morgue doorbell that indicated the arrival of a corpse. She wasn't expecting one but pressed the red button that opened the bay doors; nobody walked through it. She parted the clear flaps that hung in her path and stepped out into the cold winter air.

She experienced a sharp pain in the back of her head and then everything went dark.

* * *

Jane and Frost stepped out of the vehicle and walked towards the store where an associate confirmed the sale of all the clothing that had been found on the victim. They had given the grunt-work officers a copy of the receipt and the workers were told that if anybody could identify the person who purchased the clothes, they should call. Apparently, the woman who worked on Monday knew the man personally so Jane and Frost went to follow up on the huge lead. They walked toward the counter and waited.

"Jane Rizzoli?" The Detective turned around and wanted to walk right back out of the store.

"_Emily?"_ Jane's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "What are you doing here?" She threw the words out so quickly they blended together and Frost looked at her questioningly while Emily chuckled.

"My wife and I own the store," Emily explained, "what are _you_ doing here?" The redhead seemed very amused at the presence of Jane in her store. Jane, having been caught off guard, didn't know what to say, so she simply pulled one half of her blazer to the side where her gun and badge were. "Oh! You're here about the clothes!" Emily moved behind the counter and rifled through some papers before she found a copy of the receipt. She double-checked it and nodded to herself. "Am I allowed to ask why you need to know who bought the stuff?" Nobody had informed the store that it was concerning the body they had found.

"That's need to know, ma'am," Frost spoke up and Emily eyed him wearily. She seemed to be struggling with having to tell them who bought the items. _She must know the guy,_ Jane thought, _she'll want an explanation_. She remembered enough about the redhead to know she gave only if she got.

"Emily," Jane finally spoke, "They're threatening my… friend. The person who bought those clothes bought them because they looked like the ones my… Maura was wearing. Then he dressed a body up in the clothes and left the body in my car as a threat to us. I need to know who it is." Jane got the look back. The look she got when she was closing in on her prey and Emily's eyes widened. "I need to know who is after her."

"Jane…" The other woman seemed shocked. "Jane, the man who bought these clothes…" She paused to shake her head in disbelief. "The man who bought these clothes was Casey Jones." The women stared at each other for what felt like ages and Frost looked between the two of them in confusion. Jane struggled to process what had been said. She could scarcely believe that her first boyfriend was even still thinking about her after all this time and that he'd turned into such a monster.

"Jane, who's Casey Jones?" Frost broke the silence.

"A dead man." Jane turned on her heel and tossed her keys to Frost, who caught them. Jane was on the phone to headquarters getting every bit of information she could about her old high school boyfriend.

They learned of his incredibly decorated military service. They learned that he was honorably discharged but that when he arrived back in America, he had nobody to turn to. He lived in many shelters for homeless war veterans. He did not have a home address or a phone number. He didn't have any other employment records. Jane and Frost sat in her cruiser trying to find a way to locate the man with Korsak and Frankie calling them with updates.

"His army vet. title would have granted him access to the bullpen," Frost said, partially just to break the silence. "It could explain why he chose the poison that he did… He must have seen the antidote upstairs."

"Yeah, and that rat bastard could have seen anything about me if he'd been alone with a B.P.D. computer for more than a minute," Jane ran a hand through her hair and punched the dashboard in front of her. Jane's cell rang again and she picked it up right away. "Rizzoli… Oh, hey Susie, listen, I'm kinda bus-... What do you mean _gone?_... You sound a code red immediately and you get Frankie to lead a team of people checking cameras at every traffic light within five miles of the precinct. You go tell Korsak what's happening, okay? We're on our way!" Jane hung up the phone and looked over at Frost. "He took Maura," She choked out.

* * *

"Doctor Isles… Doctor Iiiiiiiisles."

Maura heard a vaguely familiar voice singsonging her name to her but her head hurt and she wanted to keep sleeping.

"Doctor Isles!"

_Oh, he seems angry now. Why is he so angry? _

She felt a couple of light taps to her cheek as if someone was trying to rouse her awake. The hand pulled away and came back with a force that turned Maura's whole face to the side. Her eyes watered as she blinked into consciousness.

"Ahhh, that's better." The man was polite again. Maura began to remember opening the bay doors in the morgue. She remembered the sudden pain in her head that was still throbbing behind her eyes. She tried to reach up to feel for a wound but she couldn't because her hands were bound together. The man laughed at her and she finally looked up at him. She met the eyes of the polite doorman who had let her into Jane's building two days before._ Two days still? _She couldn't be sure. He didn't seem like the same man now. He smiled down at her again but this time the smile was malicious.

"I've been waiting for so long, Maura. I don't know where to start." He whispered and backed up from her, walking over to a surgery table that had been set up beneath a harsh fluorescent light. She looked down at her bindings and assessed that the only physical harm that had come to her so far was the head wound. She was mildly comforted by the fact that her hand and ankle bindings were only zip-ties; she knew how to break free of those, Jane had taught her how. She was glad she'd changed into her runners at least before she had been taken. She looked around the room and could see that the sun was either rising or falling. She tried to see if she might find any information in her surroundings and saw that the damp room was covered in reddish-brown stains, lit by the harsh luminescent light that was attached to an old, rumbling generator. She didn't like to guess but she would know that smell anywhere; musty, thick and rust-like. Mixed into the blood, and in one corner of the room, there was mold growing. She identified it quickly as the rare mold that had been found in the wound of the Jane Doe. Based on the mold growing in the one corner, she surmised that the corner must be the northeast corner of the building, meaning the sun was rising. How many days had she been unconscious? She looked towards the Doorman and her eyes widened in fear. Even from her position on the floor slumped against a damp wall, she could see multiple surgical instruments that had no business being in such an old and dirty room. She could also make out the hilt of a gun. The Doorman finally made his choice; a simple scalpel. He turned and contemplatively looked at the tool as he approached Maura.

"This seems fitting, wouldn't you agree?" He squatted next to Maura and looked her in the eyes, holding the tool up between them. "I'm going to use this to show her that you're not as strong as she is. I'm going to show her that you can't survive what she did, and then she won't love you anymore." He lifted Maura's chin with the dull end of the blade and smiled at her. He saw the slight confusion on her face and decided it would be fun to elaborate. "Oh, I know all about what happened between her and Charles Hoyt. I read her file, you see? Police officers are surprisingly trusting… Ten minutes alone with their computer let me learn just how strong Jane is… So much stronger than the news let on". He tutted and lowered the instrument to her neck and applied just enough pressure to make her bleed. Maura knew it wasn't enough to cut through to any major arteries. "Oh, don't get hopeful for a quick death, Doctor. I plan to take my time with you." He gripped her wounded hand tightly and ripped off the bandages that were covering the stitches. He smiled down at the cut and he took the scalpel to her finger to painfully cut through all of Susie's stitching. Maura stiffened at the pain but didn't make any sounds. Though she was afraid and it hurt a great deal, her psychological training told her to remain as quiet as possible. Her whimpering would only give him more power over her and she refused to let that happen so she held her breath. He seemed to get angry again at the lack of response. "Why did you take her from me!?" He yelled before he backhanded her across the face again. She felt her lip split. She stared him right in the eyes, trying not to show any of her fear.

"She was never yours, she doesn't belong to anybody," Maura spoke calmly and confidently despite the stinging of her bleeding lip. He stood from his squatted position to use the heel of his boot to kick her in the ribs before he started erratically pacing. Maura gasped at the pain but refused to cry out.

"You have no idea what it was like over there!" He yelled and kicked the leg of the tray of tools, causing a loud and threatening rattling sound. "Do you know what it's like? To live with the constant fear of death?_ You will!_" He paused to bark out a laugh. "Oh, you will. She's mine, Doctor. Mine. Every day I would hear the bombs or the planes or the bullets and I would think of her. My Jane. My brave, brave detective. She's so strong, Maura. She would keep the bombs away." His yelling turned into a whisper but it seemed just as loud in the quiet of the room, the whispering seemed scarier somehow. "She would hide us from the planes, do you see?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out medals that told Maura he was a US Army Veteran. "Do you see?" He held them up to her face and she nodded. "You don't deserve it! You don't have any planes! Where are the bullets coming at you, Doctor Isles?" He stood up and moved back to the table and placed his medals and scalpel down. He picked up the gun and pushed it into the side of her head. She closed her eyes to the cool feeling of the barrel on her temple and prayed for a quick death that she knew wouldn't come, to a God she never believed in. He pulled the trigger. The gun was empty. He laughed and picked the scalpel back up and sat on the floor in a bloody patch. He seemed to be waiting for her to speak.

"It's clear that you're trying to terrify me," Maura supplied. She was glad that her voice came out as confident even though her ribs ached and were making her breathe raggedly. "I'm not afraid of you." She lied. _What's Jane always saying about desperate measures? _Her brain fog wouldn't let her remember.

"Oh, I know, Doctor." He grinned and leaned in to whisper to her. "It's because you're _like me._" His eyes bored into hers and she couldn't help but let his words settle in her mind. "You're surrounded by more death than anybody, and you just can't _help yourself _from thinking of Jane... longing for Jane… _Loving _Jane... Sound familiar? You're_ just like us. _And you _like it!" _He grinned maliciously at her, and she could feel her face contort into a pained, confused grimace, but she couldn't control her resolve any longer._ "I win..._" He seemed to know that his words got to her. She knew he was trying to break her spirit and wanted to refuse to let him, but her thoughts were muddled by the pain in her head and she did love Jane, so at least part of his statement had to be true. Maybe she was like him. Like Hoyt.

* * *

Jane had been up all night trying to find something, anything, that would lead her to Maura. She'd exhausted every resource she could think of. She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath. Her determination was a force to be reckoned with and her colleagues watched her in awe and fear as she poured over the materials before her. She barked orders around and they were immediately followed. She called any and all resources that she could think of, from old high school friends to the Director of the local Discharged Homeless Army Veteran Care Centre, anybody who had the slightest chance of hearing from Casey. She slammed the phone down in its holster but where she normally would have groaned in frustration and left to make a coffee, she instead took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

She knew that getting frustrated wouldn't help her to find Maura and that was the only thing she cared about. She needed to save her best friend, the woman who had walked into her life and turned everything Jane knew on its head for the better. She had to save the woman who, though was worldly, had experienced so little in the way of love and friendship that having her life cut off once she'd finally found both would be the worst cruelty the world could offer. She didn't want to go back into a world where Maura didn't exist. The kind Doctor had too much to offer to everybody and Jane knew that she would never stop searching for the smaller woman. If she had to, she would search every building in Boston by herself, floor by floor until Maura was found safe. She couldn't do anything else. She pulled the list of homeless shelters to herself and was going to call every single one that was still open back to see if she'd get anything more.

"That's it!" She stood suddenly and grasped her copy of the list tightly in her hand. Korsak and Frost jumped at the sudden noise. "They're not all still open!" Jane shouted as she gestured wildly with the list. "Frost, how many of these are closed?" Jane asked her partner. He glanced down into his own paperwork before he answered.

"Nine."

"How many of those nine buildings are condemned or abandoned?" The men were beginning to understand her. Frost and Korsak nodded to each other and both began to type on their computers. It was wordlessly understood that Frost would start at the bottom and Korsak would start at the top of the list. Korsak spoke first.

"Bedlam Road is condemned due to water damage," Frost spoke almost immediately after.

"Saint Catherine's is abandoned." They made their way through the whole list and looked up to Jane.

"Two?!" She shouted. "Let's go! Korsak, you take a group to Bedlam and keep in touch, okay? Frost, you come with me. Saint Catherine's is close to our old school, it's likely he took her there, but Vince, I need you at Bedlam in case he took her there to throw us… I don't trust anybody else." The older man nodded and walked out of the room with his phone to his ear. Frost was on a call as well as he and Jane moved to follow their Sargent.

Jane and Frost pulled up to the abandoned red brick building and immediately got out of their vehicle, withdrawing their guns. They were the first on the scene but couldn't wait for the backup to arrive. Maura's life was at stake. Jane took the lead and walked them both toward the large wooden front door, backing up so that Frost could kick it in. The main room was large and empty so they cleared it quickly, moving on toward the single hallway to the back of the building. They slowly opened doors and cleared the empty rooms of danger. Each room looked as if it used to be a hospital room from the 1940s; empty metal bed frames lined the walls and there were sheets and mattresses stained and torn up in each. The entire building had been abandoned for so long that even the graffiti on the walls was covered in a thick sheet of grime. There were no signs of life yet, but the detectives could hear an electric humming in the distance so they moved toward the noise. They came to the last room before the steep set of stairs that led down into the basement and what Jane saw shook her to her very core.

There was a single mattress in the middle of the room and surrounding it, plastered over every inch of the walls were articles of her kidnapping. There were images of her and Maura walking down the street of their way to Gino's Restaurant, Jane holding the door open for a smiling Maura walking into the precinct. Hundreds of images of Jane and Maura spending time together in their daily lives. There were articles of Jane's statements that she'd made while she was working the Hoyt case, and articles about Maura too. There were images of Maura doing everyday things, such as walking to her car with drycleaning and several photos taken through the curtains of her Beacon Hill windows where the ME was feeding Bass or reading at her kitchen island. There were shots of the ME doing yoga in her fitness room or sipping a glass of wine in one of her silk pajama sets that Jane didn't want anybody else in the world to see. Jane almost vomited when she saw a picture of herself and Maura lounging back on the Doctor's couch on the first night Jane had stayed there. She looked at her own face in the image; it was full of adoration while she smiled at Maura. She looked at the ME's face and saw the same emotions reflected back as the blonde grinned at her. How had she missed it at the time? She hadn't felt this intruded upon since her months-long case with Hoyt and it was unnerving for her to know that Maura was right in the middle of it this time. Her resolve hardened at the thought of her best friend, of the woman she'd loved for weeks, and she looked over her shoulder to Frost who nodded; he would follow her lead and have her back to the bitter end. They left the room and made their way down the damp and narrow stairwell, hardened by the familiar scent of musty blood.

* * *

The sound of a vehicle made the Doorman pause his frightening whisper. He cocked his head towards the window and stood to try to see out of it. He sighed in frustration when he could see nothing and sent a seething look towards Maura before he grabbed his unloaded gun and exited the room. She immediately reached down to her running shoes and began to untie the laces. She pulled one lace completely out of the shoe and brought one end of it through the binds on her wrists and into her mouth. She could taste the old blood of Jane Doe. She clamped the other end of the lace in between her feet and started to furiously saw her wrists back and forth on the string once it was pulled tight. The friction was burning her wrists but the plastic was heating up as well. It eventually snapped. She spit the lace out and looped it through the binds of her ankles. It was easier to do with her hands, even though one of them hurt. She was free. She stood and rushed over to the surgery table. She heard a crashing noise from upstairs and picked up the most familiar thing she could find. She was grabbed tightly from behind and turned around. The Doorman was using her as a human body shield. She stabbed her weapon into his thigh and he cried out in pain but he didn't release her.

"Jane! I'm here! I'm down-" He clamped a hand over her mouth and held the gun to her head. She couldn't break free from his hold and she was having trouble breathing. Jane was suddenly in the room and her eyes quickly assessed Maura's wounds before she turned back into the cold, confident Detective she knew her Doctor needed her to be. Frost was soon behind her.

"You let her go right now, Casey or I swear on my life I'll shoot you where you stand," Jane growled between her teeth. The Doorman giggled into Maura's ear.

"But not before I shoot your Doctor." He smiled back at Jane as if they were playing a fun game. Maura was on high alert with the adrenaline running through her veins. She looked at Jane, and then to Frost, knowing the Detectives would never take the shot. Maura was starting to pass out from the lack of airflow and she knew she needed to act. She stopped struggling against the arm that was over her mouth and she quickly reached down for the scalpel that she'd implanted in the Doorman's thigh. She yanked it out of his flesh and he cried out before she quickly turned the blade around in her hand and brought it up, behind her head and into where she estimated his carotid artery to be. She felt a warm rush of blood spray onto her hand and leak down her back. He released his hold on her and she stepped away from him. She turned around quickly to make sure he was dead.

"I win," Maura whispered dazedly down to his body, the scalpel still in her wounded hand. She felt somebody gently take hold of her wrist and looked over to see Jane's hand. She saw the scar in the middle of the back of Jane's hand and she looked to her own again, bleeding profusely and clutching a scalpel. The instrument that had saved her. The instrument that haunted Jane.

"Maura," was all Jane needed to say. Maura's hand sprung open and the scalpel fell to the ground. She began to violently shake and she turned to look into Jane's wide, brown eyes. There was no kindness there anymore. There was no adoration. There was only fear.

* * *

**:) I'm evil, I know. **


	15. Chapter 15

**I just want to start by thanking everyone for the wonderful reviews I've been getting! It's incredibly helpful for me to know what you guys want. The fact that you take time to comment is valued by me so greatly and I want you all to know that I love the feedback! **

**I literally squealed when I got over 100 followers 3 THANK YOU SO MUCH! **

**Anyway, on with the story, am I right? **

**R&I**

**Thursday**

Frost and Jane gently coaxed Maura out of the building and into an ambulance once it arrived. It was clear that the ME was in a state of shock. Nobody said anything and the silence was deafening. Jane stood silently as the medics looked Maura over and Frost went to fill Korsak in on what happened. The medics couldn't stitch Maura's hand up in the field, so they recommended that she go to the hospital; she was likely to have a concussion and a possible skull fracture along with her split lip and bruised ribs. Jane nodded her understanding and told the paramedics that she would lead the ambulance to the hospital with her lights on to make sure the roads were cleared. Maura sat listening but not hearing any of the words that were being spoken around her. She felt like she was underwater and everything was muffled. She didn't hear Jane say goodbye, she only saw that the Detective was walking away from her. The last thought she had before she fell back into unconsciousness was that Jane was afraid of her. Jane was afraid of her because she was just like the Doorman. Just like Hoyt.

* * *

Maura woke several hours later. She didn't need to open her eyes to know she was in a hospital. The beeping of her monitors and the familiar smell of the room was enough for her to know. Her head was pounding and she didn't want to open her eyes; she knew the lights would bring her even more pain. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly as memories started to flood into her mind. She had fatally wounded a human being. That human being would have no doubt killed her and made sure the process was painful, but she couldn't rationalize that fact when she had taken an oath as a Doctor to protect all life. She couldn't get the feeling of his blood spraying onto her out of her mind. She finally opened her eyes to try to stop the images that were flooding through her head.

Jane was sleeping in a chair next to the bed Maura was laying in. The Detective was slumped back as far as possible and her head rested on the back of the chair with her blazer acting as a pillow. It looked uncomfortable. Maura didn't understand why Jane was there. Jane was afraid of her, afraid of what she'd done. A tear leaked out of the corner of Maura's eye as she looked at the dark circles that indicated Jane's own lack of sleep. The Detective hadn't had dark circles like that for weeks and now Maura was the cause of them. She knew how Jane could be deeply affected psychologically by watching Maura use a scalpel to wound someone, instead of helping them. Maura knew just how deeply Jane's nightmare ran, always involving the small silver blades, always involving a basement and always involving death at the point of a scalpel.

She had never felt so guilty and sorrowful in her life. It broke her heart to be the one to bring such fear into Jane's life when the only thing Jane had ever brought to the ME's life was happiness. Security. Friendship. Love. There was a light knock on the door and Maura closed her eyes quickly. She wasn't ready to talk to anybody so she feigned sleep.

"Jane," Frost whispered into the room. "Jane, they need to take your statement… They need you back at HQ." Maura heard a low groan and shifting.

"Can't it wait?" Jane sounded exhausted. Her voice was quiet and horse, like it hadn't been used for days.

"Sorry, they need to make a statement about… what happened, and they need our testimony first." There was a heavy sigh from Jane's direction. Maura felt a light caress under the bandage on her neck. A hand grasped her uninjured one before Jane spoke right next to her ear.

"I'm sorry, Maura," She said, and then they were gone, leaving Maura alone to cry.

* * *

Jane fidgeted through her entire statement. The ordeal lasted hours and she was having a hard time sitting still long enough to answer the questions that were being asked of her. It was always complicated when somebody died during a rescue, especially when the police weren't the ones to put the body there. Maura had saved herself. It was self-defense and everybody knew it, but that didn't make the process any easier. Frost and Jane were forced to give their testimonies separately, and it unnerved Jane greatly to be treated like a perp. The only one who had done anything wrong was Casey Jones, and he was dead now so Jane just wanted to be near Maura to make sure she was okay. Jane figured it would be difficult for the ME to come to terms with the fact that she'd taken a life and was afraid of how Maura might react to having stabbed someone. The good Doctor was always trying to save lives. Trying to find justice for those whose lives were cut too short, and Jane knew Maura well enough to know that the ME would struggle with herself about it, self-defense or not. By the time her interview was over, her eyes felt swollen in tiredness and she had a migraine. She immediately called the hospital to get an update on Maura but the nurse told her that the ME had been discharged. Jane wondered why Maura hadn't called her. She checked her phone just to be sure but she didn't have any missed calls or text messages at all.

Jane started to panic as she assumed all the reasons Maura would be avoiding her. She knew Maura would be confused and possibly afraid, but was it possible that she blamed Jane for what had happened? The Detective couldn't really be mad at the ME if that was the case, it was Jane's old boyfriend who had kidnapped the Doctor. Jane wasn't sure what Casey had said to Maura in the basement of that old building. It could have been anything. He must have said something to make Maura fearful of Jane. Rationally, Jane knew that it wasn't her fault that Casey had abducted and terrified Maura, but she still felt guilty for not protecting the ME. She should have sent Frankie to protect her again, to make sure she wasn't left alone in the morgue. She began to get angry at herself for being so stupid. Obviously whoever was after Maura had access to the building if they knew about the flowers in the bullpen. She should never have left Maura alone at all. Maybe it was Jane's fault.

"Hey," Jane jumped at the hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Korsak standing next to her. "Let me drive you home, okay?" Jane sighed and nodded. She followed the older man silently and they hardly spoke at all as he drove her to her apartment. Jane was grateful that Korsak knew her well enough to not talk about anything. Jane thanked him and exited the vehicle. She walked into her apartment and looked around the space. Everything in view belonged to her, she'd chosen every piece of furniture and every decoration in sight. She should have been comforted in the solace of her own house, but she'd never felt further away from home. She closed the door behind her and turned to lock it. She kicked off her boots and made her way to her bedroom. She stripped down and searched through a pile of clean-ish clothes until she found what she was looking for. She's taken the sweater home to wash it earlier that week. She pulled it over her head and read 'Proud Leader of B.P.D.'s GEEK SQUAD' before she fell into bed and willed herself to sleep, pulling the sweater up to her nose so she could smell the ME's house. She wanted to be at home. She wanted to be with Maura. She cried until exhaustion overcame her.

* * *

**Friday**

Jane had to go into work the following day. She was already in a horrible mood because she'd gotten her best friend kidnapped and not being able to see Maura wasn't making her any more pleasant. The ME got the rest of the week off and the entire weekend through to Monday. When Jane walked into the bullpen on Friday morning looking like she hadn't slept in weeks, her team knew better than to bother her with anything that wasn't necessary. She didn't have any active cases and she wasn't allowed to go down to the morgue while Pike was performing the autopsy on Casey Jones. She felt like she was on house arrest.

The huge stack of paperwork that was waiting on her desk did nothing to improve her mood. When Frost called Maura from his desk to see if she needed anything, Jane almost broke down. The ME still hadn't even tried to get in contact with her. Jane ran a hand through her hair in frustration as she listened to her partner offer to bring Maura food and medicine. She glanced at her mousepad, and frowned; the flower Maura had given her was still hidden under it. She felt stupid for ever being hopeful that someone like Maura could be interested in her. She didn't even realize Frost was talking to her and he had to repeat himself several times to get her attention.

"Jane, you should really talk to Maura." He spoke quietly to her, "I think she needs a... I think she needs you. Go see her. Talk to her." Jane stared at him as the words registered with her and she choked out a bitter laugh.

"And say what? '_Sorry my highschool boyfriend tried to kill you!' _I can't just show up at her house, Frost," Jane spoke quietly back. "It's my fault she got kidnapped... She's mad at me or... Afraid of me, and I can't say I blame her. I'm the last person she'd want to see right now." Jane spoke to him as she looked down at her paperwork pretending to work.

"She's not mad at you, Jane-"

"Then why hasn't she called?" Jane snapped and looked up at him. Several of the other workers in the bullpen glanced over at her outburst. She was trying to cover up her pain with anger, but Frost knew her well enough to see through her mask.

"Jane, she's just scared." Frost tried to reason with her.

"She should be! Obviously I can't keep her safe." Jane rubbed her face with her hands.

"I don't think that's what she's afraid of." Frost looked like he was going to keep talking but Jane knew she couldn't handle speaking about Maura at that moment. She felt the familiar sting of tears and decided to flee before she could embarrass herself.

"Just drop it, alright?" Jane stood and threw her coat on rather aggressively. She glared at everyone who looked up at her outburst and left the room. For the remainder of the day, she decided to just leave the room if Frost tried to talk to her about Maura and he eventually got the message. She'd taken a long lunch and worked out in the gym at work, but nothing made her feel better. When she got to her apartment after her shift she changed back into Maura's sweater and was sad because it only smelled like herself now. She threw herself on her couch and tried to flip through the T.V. but nothing seemed interesting. She couldn't get Maura out of her head. Her cell phone ringing got her out of her haze of misery and she jumped to answer it but she was immediately disappointed when the caller ID indicated that her mother was calling. She sighed heavily.

"_What, _Ma?" She spoke slowly, and Angela could feel her daughter's sadness through the phone.

"_You promised me you'd let me take you shopping tomorrow! Is that any way to greet your mother? Who raised you?" _

"Sorry, Ma," Jane had the decency to feel ashamed, "I just forgot. I've been…"

"_Frankie said you had a rough week. Did you want to talk about it?" _

_Yes. _Jane thought. "No," she said. Angela Rizzoli didn't understand her daughter, but she did _know _her daughter. She knew Jane well enough to know what would help her, and for once, she decided not to push.

"_Janie..? We don't have to go shopping tomorrow… and Jane? I love you, honey." _

Jane smiled for the first time in two days. "I love you too, Ma."

* * *

Maura lay down on her couch in one of Jane's t-shirts that she decided to borrow from the bag that was full of Jane's things. It smelled like the Detective and it was making her feel better and worse at the same time. After she had come home from the hospital, she'd taken one look at herself in the mirror and she couldn't bring her feet to move. She still didn't know how long she had stood in her bathroom, intaking her bloodstained hair and clothes, assessing her split lip and then lightly pressing the bruising to her face and ribs, but she still felt dirty even after having showered three times. She'd washed blood off of herself before, many times, but this was the first time the blood was there because she'd wounded someone, fatally.

She shook her head and tried to rationalize with herself that she had to kill that man. He would surely have suffocated her to death right in front of Jane and Barry if she hadn't acted the way she did. She knew that to be fact, but she couldn't shake the guilt of her actions for the life of her. She shook her head trying to shake away the thoughts that kept making her cry. She was expecting Barry any minute and never liked crying in front of people. He'd offered to bring her food and to talk if she wanted to. She was going to change but found that she didn't have the energy to get up off of the couch so she'd texted Barry the code to her door so that he could let himself in. She heard the beeping of her keypad and sat up, throwing a blanket over her legs. He closed the door quietly behind him before he took off his shoes. He nodded, impressed at Maura's large home before he made his way over to the chair beside the couch she was on. He smiled at her and handed her the brown paper bag he'd been holding.

"Thank you, Barry," Maura said as she took the food. She pulled out a bowl of chicken noodle soup and smiled at it. She moved to toss the bag on the coffee table but it was still heavy so she looked into it again. Her eyes started to tear up. She felt ridiculous and embarrassed as she stared down into the bag at a couple of powdered donuts. Why did everything have to remind her of Jane?

"_Oh_, oh no," Barry took the bag from her and handed her the tissues that were in it. "I remembered Jane said that you liked them! I thought it would be a nice surprise!" She took the tissues and waved off his worrying words.

"It's fine, I'm just…" Maura searched for the right words. She didn't understand her feelings, she'd never felt like this before. "It's irrational." She wiped her eyes and sighed.

"No, it's not irrational," Frost leaned forward, leaning his elbows on his knees to make sure Maura would look at him and listen. "You've been through a trauma and it doesn't help that she's not here. It's normal, Maura. It's _human."_ He grinned at her and she chuckled.

"I miss her," Maura admitted. Barry had noticed that she was wearing one of Jane's Red Sox shirts. He decided not to mention it. "What if she never wants to speak to me again?"

"Why would you think that? Jane loves you!" He hadn't meant to say it, but it just slipped out. She didn't believe him anyway, or she didn't think he meant it in _that _way.

"You should have seen her face after I… after it happened. Barry, I think she's afraid of me. I think she's comparing me to him." Her lip quivered slightly at the thought.

"Maura, you're nothing like Casey Jones," Barry misunderstood.

"No, not him. Didn't you read her file? I think she's comparing me to Hoyt. She hasn't called or texted. She saw me... kill a man with a _scalpel_. How could she see me as anything else after that?" Maura dabbed at her eyes again. She always hated crying in front of people.

"Now I see why you shouldn't guess," Frost muttered. "She's not avoiding you because she's afraid of you, she's giving you the space she thinks you need to come to terms with what happened. She feels like it's all her fault, somehow, because that's what she does. She takes the blame for everyone's hurt. What's the one thing Rizzoli's never do, Maura?" She didn't have to think about it. It had really hit home with her when Jane said that Maura was a Rizzoli and that Rizzoli's don't give in to fear. She didn't understand what that had to do with anything though.

"Maura," Frost continued patiently. "Jane does run away, but never when she's afraid. She runs when she needs to think about something or if she wants to avoid thinking about something, but if she was afraid, she'd be here to face it." Maura tried to find a flaw in his explanation but she couldn't find one. She still couldn't bring herself to believe him though. She reached for the soup he brought her and removed the lid. Frost seemed to know that she needed time to process the information. "We're here for you, you know? Me and Korsak and Frankie. Susie told me to let you know that you can text her if you want to. You're not alone. Maybe Jane's not here right now, but I do know that she wishes she was. You still have people, okay? If you want to talk about what you had to do… You have an army of people that care about you. I just needed to make sure you knew that." Maura smiled at him as much as she could. His words meant a great deal to her, but she couldn't feel what they meant with so much guilt and sadness filling her heart. She still appreciated his company and his friendship.

* * *

**Saturday**

On her first day off, Jane woke up naturally. She didn't set an alarm the day before because she didn't want to be awake. She didn't have a single thing to do and knew she was going to spend her entire weekend wallowing about her apartment in Maura's sweater. At least she wasn't on call for once. What she wasn't expecting was a knock on the door, and then for whoever it was to walk right in like they owned the place. She was going to groan at her mother's intrusion but she was shocked to hear Frankie calling out to her instead.

"Jane, if you're not up and outta bed in ten, I'm gonna start posting ads online to say you're looking for a roommate. And I'll only reply to _really _freaky ones." She rolled her eyes and pulled on some sweatpants. She smelled her armpit through her shirt and smirked at the fact that Frankie would have to put up with how bad she smelled.

_That'll teach him. _She dragged her blanket with her and made her way over to the couch where her brother was already making himself at home, flipping through the channels and eating her Lucky Charms right out of the box. She sat next to him and grabbed the box from his hands to hit him over the head with it, and he stole it right back but nicely handed her a coffee, served with a classic Rizzoli eye roll. "You're welcome."

"...Thank you," Jane looked at him through the corner of her eyes and pulled the beverage into her chest within the confines of her blanket.

"Ma sent me," He looked over at her apologetically but she didn't feel angry at all. She was surprised that her mother had already willingly canceled their shopping plans and was even more pleased to see that instead of barging into her apartment, like her mother normally did when she feared for her children, she'd sent Frankie. Angela knew that Frankie wouldn't push for information or try to clean Jane's apartment. Angela knew that her middle child would do exactly what Jane needed him to do; just as he had always done. Jane smiled over at her brother and for the first time in a long time, felt like her mother understood her.

"Thanks for coming, I'm..." She didn't want to admit that she was having a really hard time without Maura. She didn't want to explain to her brother that it felt like the inside of her chest had gone through a meat grinder. She didn't need to.

"You're a mess, I know," Frankie kept his eyes on the T.V. until he could find something better to say. "Come on, have you _smelled _yourself, you're disgusting." Frankie dramatically waved a hand in front of his nose and Jane decided that it would be an opportune moment to stick her foot in his face. "Ew! I thought Maura was supposed to be teaching you some manners!" At the mention of the ME's name, their smiles faded and Jane repositioned herself on the couch so she was sitting again.

"I think she hates me," Jane admitted quietly. Frankie's response was not so quiet.

"What? Jane, she loves you. Like, _loves _loves you, I think," He used his hands to accentuate his words and Jane was annoyed because he looked like their mother. "Frost said that she's a mess and that she misses you."

"Just because she misses me doesn't mean she wants to see me," Jane supplied and Frankie rolled his eyes at his sister.

"You're just doing that thing you do. She'll come around, you just gotta grow a pair and go see her." Frankie pointed to the door with his thumb.

"What? What_ thing_ do I do?" Jane asked, confused. She'd just analyzed the situation and come to a reasonable conclusion. Or so she thought.

"You remember when I was around eight and Tommy was four, and Ma and Pop had just gotten us into our Sunday clothes so we could all go to church and you were trying to convince Ma to let you go in a suit?" He waited for her response, grinning at his sister.

"Yeah, you idiots decided that would be a _great _time to break into Pop's office and play with his dartboard. Man, I was so scared for you when I walked in to see that you'd smashed the window." Jane's eyes widened as she thought about how their mother had screamed.

"You remember us breaking the window and you remember Ma screaming at you while she and Pop picked up the glass... Do you even remember telling Ma and Pop that it was your fault? You told them that it was you who threw the dart at the window, even though you weren't there at all. You just took the blame to protect us, but Jane, we didn't ask you to do that." He was looking at her like he'd made a very important point. It annoyed her.

"Okay, so you're mad that I was a good sister?" Jane pointed to herself and glared disbelievingly at Frankie, who rolled his eyes at his smart sister's stupidity. He smacked her shoulder for good measure.

"No, genius, my point is that Maura's not asking you to take the blame. She doesn't need you to protect her like that, it doesn't help either of you. She just needs you to be there." Frankie shrugged and looked back to the television while Jane thought over what he said. She'd been protecting people for so long that taking the blame when they got hurt slowly became second nature to her. It had become a habit, without her even realizing it, for her to step in and blame herself when anything went wrong, whether it was to protect someone else or not. She slowly came to realize that blaming herself didn't help anybody at all. It was like blaming the dart Tommy threw for breaking the window; it wasn't the darts fault that it was a dart, it was Tommy's fault that he threw it. It wasn't Jane's fault Maura had gotten kidnapped, it was Casey Jones's fault. Jane couldn't have stopped Casey Jones from turning into a monster any more than she could have stopped that dart from hitting the glass, only this time, she could be the one to pick up the pieces.

Jane suddenly remembered the note Maura had tucked into her blouse pocket before she'd been kidnapped and she leaped off the couch and ran to her room. She emptied her laundry basket to try to find the shirt she'd been wearing. She pulled the note from the pocket and read.

_It ain't over til it's over. _

Jane read the note and laughed out loud. She immediately recognized the quote from the Yankee's player Yogi Berra. She'd told Maura about it once when the ME was reading a medical journal while Jane watched baseball, claiming the quote to be the only good thing to ever come from the Yankee's existence. It was so like Maura to purposely quote a Yankee to tease Jane, and it warmed her heart to know that even though Maura didn't care much for the sport, she still paid attention to Jane's ramblings about it. If Jane had read this note while she was out shopping with her mother, it would have immediately put her in a good mood. Maura understood her better than anyone ever had before. This realization had Jane running out of her door faster than she could think to change her shirt. She hollered a 'gotta go' to a confused Frankie and she made her way out to her car without even a coat.

* * *

Maura heard a knock on her front door and decided to ignore it. She wasn't expecting anybody and she was still trying to understand everything Frost had said to her the day before. The knocking repeated, louder this time, and she rolled her eyes as she stood from the couch to go answer the door.

"J-Jane?" The Detective was shivering in the snow on her doorstep. "Where is your jacket?" Was the first thing Maura thought to say. Jane reached a shivering hand into her pocket and removed the note she'd found. She handed it to her friend and the ME read it in confusion as Jane entered the house to immediately begin pacing. Jane didn't know what she should say. She noticed the bruising across Maura's face and the split lip was shocking to see again. The shock of seeing somebody so kind and gentle be wounded in such a way turned Jane's stomach and left her speechless. Maura tried to follow Jane's movements with her eyes but it was giving her a headache so she moved forward and placed her hands on Jane's shoulders to stop the taller woman. "Stop, breathe and come meet me on the couch when you're ready." Maura was going to move away but saw that Jane was looking down at the Red Sox jersey she had been wearing for the last couple of days. She looked down in embarrassment but the feeling didn't last long, because she read the familiar script written across the sweater Jane has borrowed a week before. Maura felt tears spring to her eyes for what felt like the thousandth time that week, but this time they were happy tears. Jane had missed her; all the evidence was there. Maura dropped her hands from Jane's shoulders and wrapped them around the taller woman's middle. She squeezed firmly as she pressed her face into Jane's chest. She felt Jane's arms wrap around her shoulders and a kiss to the top of her head.

"I missed you so much," Jane whispered into Maura's hair, and the ME pulled in a deep breath, finally feeling at home in her own house.

"I missed you, too," Maura murmured, and Jane had to tilt her head to hear the muffled words. Maura glanced up into Jane's face with a slight pout on her lips. "Jane, you smell horrible." Jane burst out laughing and pulled Maura tighter to her.

"You're one to talk," Jane backed up and played with the hem of her t-shirt that Maura was wearing. "This hasn't been this dirty since I actually_ played_ baseball in it." She teased. Maura chuckled at their behavior. She found it both funny and strangely comforting that they had done the same thing to comfort themselves in the other's absence. She was saddened again when she remembered why the absence was necessary and she pulled herself away from Jane. "Maura? What's wrong?" Jane moved to reach out for the ME again, but the blonde held up a hand to stop her.

"You can't be here and comfort me… or give me hope that we're going to be fine when I know you're just going to run from me again." Maura tried to stand as proudly as she could, but her hair was a mess and her shirt was covered in donut powder, and it barely covered her pantless legs. She knew she looked the farthest thing from proud, but she needed to get her words out.

"Maura, I'm not running. I said I wasn't going to run away from this." Jane gestured between the two of them. She was confused. Maura had been so happy to see her but was now asking her to leave and she didn't understand why.

"You already ran, Jane," Maura spoke through the tears that were prickling in her eyes. "You just left me at the hospital and you didn't come back. You didn't call or text... You just ran." Maura moved to go sit back on the couch; her nest of misery blankets was calling to her again. Jane grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Maura, I wasn't running from you. I will never run from you." The Detective said, and the conviction in her voice was enough to make Maura turn back around to face her. Jane loosened her grip on Maura's wrist and slid her hand into Maura's palm, bringing the blonde's injured hand up so she could place a gentle kiss on the bandages there. "I thought… I thought that maybe you blamed me and then I guess I kinda started to blame myself a little bit too." A tear escaped Jane's eye as she whispered out her confession. Maura reached up with her free hand a wiped the tear away with her thumb before she withdrew her hand again.

"Jane, I don't blame you for what happened to me," Maura waited for Jane to look at her before she continued. "It is not your fault that Casey Jones created a mental bond with the idea of you and then got PTSD from war. It's not your fault he saw me as… as a threat to his claim over you. In his mind, he needed to… remove me from your life so that you could be his again, but _none _of that is your fault." Maura squeezed Jane's hand and let go. She knew Jane was holding back, she knew Jane was afraid of what she'd seen Maura do with the scalpel. "You don't have to come here to make sure I'm okay. I'm fine, Jane. I know what seeing me… seeing me u-use that scalpel to… t-to," Maura paused to take a deep breath, willing her voice to stop cracking with tears, "You saw me fatally injure a man you used to personally know with a scalpel. With a _scalpel._" Maura said the word and looked down at her bandaged hand. She still couldn't come to terms with the fact that she'd taken a life and she was terrified of herself, but she was even more afraid for Jane. Terrified of what the woman she loved saw her as.

Jane listened to Maura's words and watched her body language. She took in the evidence before her and immediately felt like an idiot. Of course Maura wouldn't blame her for getting kidnapped. Kind, rational Maura would never hold a grudge like that. Jane noticed that the ME kept putting physical distance between them, as if not willing to let herself give in to the fact that Jane wasn't going anywhere. She listened to Maura give her an out to leave the Doctor's life. She watched as her best friend stared down at her own hands as if they were still covered in blood. She read in her friend's face that she'd regretted her actions, though they were necessary. She regretted using a scalpel, of all things, to defend herself, and it was clear as day that she worried about how the Detective might handle seeing her defend herself in such a brutal way.

"Maura," Jane stepped forward and gently grasped Maura's hands. "Honey, look at me." The gentleness in Jane's voice was unexpected and snapped Maura out of the rabbit hole of guilt she'd been about to fall into again. She looked up into Jane's eyes, her favorite eyes, and saw genuine care within them. "I'm not afraid of you," Jane murmured simply, and she stepped a small bit closer to her best friend. Maura tightened her eyes closed and tried not to start bawling.

"He said that I'm like _them_, Jane. He said that I l-like death and that I… He said-"

"Hey," Jane pulled Maura into another hug and gently held the smaller woman as her sobs started. Jane held Maura while she cried and waited for the smaller woman's breathing to even out a little before she continued. "You are _nothing_ like them, Maura." Jane tried to convince her friend, but Maura pulled away again and moved to her laptop on the kitchen island. She opened it and showed Jane the three tabs she'd been looking at.

"I've been do-doing research," Maura pointed to Charles Hoyt's biography, to a section in Casey Jones's and then to her own. Jane glanced at her friend and then looked to the screen. All three people had gone to a boarding school overseas at some point. They'd all gone to medical school. Hoyt's page indicated that he was particularly fond of corpses and that he's suffered tremendous neglect in his childhood. Casey Jone's page said that he was very good at what he did and that people had been impressed by him throughout his military career. Jane clicked over to Maura's biography. There were pictures of her at around thirteen smiling at the camera as she dissected a frog. There was a list of awards she'd gotten in school and then as the article moved on to her career it began to speak about how odd it was that the Doctor worked so well with the dead. Jane glanced at Maura who was looking worriedly toward the screen and fidgeting. Jane had never seen Maura fidget before. "M-maybe I am a little bit like them?" Maura asked as if she were afraid of the answer.

"You are _nothing_ like those monsters." Jane tried to implore into her friend, but Maura flinched at the word 'monster' and shook her head, still looking to the evidence she'd found on the internet.

"I don't know, Jane… I had a weird childhood. I was alone a lot of the time and so were they," Maura gestured to the screen. "My parents loved me, but they didn't know how to show it and I didn't know how to ask them to. I didn't know how to ask for anything, and the less I would ask for, the less time they would have for me. I went to boarding school in hopes of finding friends, but everyone there thought I was weird too… Maybe they were right." Maura glanced at the screen again and Jane's heart broke. The detective closed the tabs and shut the laptop down.

"No, Maura," Jane said and she wrapped Maura into a hug once more. "No matter what happened to you growing up or in that basement, you are nothing like those monsters. You're a little anti-social, maybe… a little goofy, but it's not the same thing. That's where the similarities end, honey. You're so much more than the neglect you suffered. You didn't let _anything_ turn you into a monster, Maura, you let it make you kind. Do you see? You all suffered, but they let it eat away at every part of them that used to be human until they didn't feel anything anymore. You suffered and your heart grew from your experience instead of disappearing, you took that negativity and you let it change you into a kind, gentle, beautiful person, Maura. You are nothing like them and I am not afraid of you." Maura finally let herself give in to Jane's embrace and the pair of women stood together crying for what felt like seconds and hours all at once.

"I should really get clean…" Maura mumbled into Jane.

"I'll go fill up your tub," Jane squeezed Maura and kissed the top of her head before she pulled away. "Okay?" Jane asked as she caressed both of Maura's cheeks. The ME nodded and the pair of women made their way up the stairs.

Jane entered Maura's en suite and rinsed the tub out before she closed the drain and made sure the water temperature was good. She added the bubble bath that was sitting on one of the shelves and saw a speaker in the corner. She opened up the music app on her own phone and linked the calming playlist Maura had shared with her to the speaker. Maura walked into the room wrapped in her fluffy robe and Jane smiled over at her. Along with her facial wounds, Maura's hair was a mess and she had dark circles under her eyes. She wasn't wearing any makeup and Jane thought she could see the remnants of donut powder to the side of Maura's mouth. Still, she was absolutely breathtaking. Jane stood and put toothpaste on Maura's toothbrush and handed it to the ME who blushed.

"You look beautiful," Jane murmured in Maura's ear and then she left a lingering kiss on Maura's cheek, very close to the ME's mouth. "I'm gonna go shower downstairs..." Jane straightened up and walked over to the door. "Hey, Maura?" The ME turned to look a Jane. "You're my absolute favorite person on the planet." Jane blew a kiss and left, leaving an exhausted but smiling Maura Isles standing behind her.

Maura left the door open and she pulled her robe off. She sank slowly into the tub, feeling again like leaving the door open left her connection with Jane intact. The warmth of the bath soothed the ache in her bones and she rubbed her hand along her bruised ribs. The pain was slowly abating and she was glad to see the evidence of the week fading from her body. She leaned against the back of the tub and let Jane's words wash over her. The Detective wasn't afraid of her. She soaked in the tub with that thought in her mind until any insecurity of that fact had been washed away from her. She wasn't sure how long she sat there in the water, but she eventually heard a light knock on the door.

"Hey Maur, you okay?" Jane spoke quietly from outside of the ensuite.

"You can come in, Jane," The ME answered and Jane walked into the room, looking slightly nervous in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. Maura smiled up at the brunette, always amazed that something as simple as nudity could transform the confident Detective that she knew into the sweet, thoughtful, caring Jane Rizzoli that she loved. "Do you want to sit with me?" Maura closed her eyes as she asked, thinking it might take some of the pressure off of Jane. She heard footsteps approach her and peeked one of her eyes open to see Jane sit next to the tub and reach out a hand to place over the top of Maura's which was resting on the rim of the tub. Maura upturned her hand to lace their fingers together and smiled sweetly over to Jane.

"How are you feeling?" Jane rested her chin on her other arm as she murmured to Maura. Her kind, brown eyes were full of concern and it warmed Maura's heart to know that their friendship, or whatever it was, had survived the week they'd just had to suffer. Maura sighed contently and closed her eyes before she responded.

"Much better," Maura hummed out. Jane admired Maura's hair which she had pinned to the top of her head in a loose bun. She was glad to see that her friend's, or whatever she was, wounds were healing quickly. She brought the blonde's hand up to her lips and kissed their entwined fingers.

"Good," Jane paused. "I was so scared, Maura. I've never been so scared in all my life." Jane whispered out her truth, unable to hold it in any longer.

"When he had me in the basement?" Maura asked for clarification.

"When I couldn't find you…" Jane cleared the emotion from her throat before she could continue. "Maura I… I don't want to go back." Maura opened her eyes and looked in confusion at Jane, "I couldn't stop thinking about how much you've made my life better. I couldn't get it out of my head that I'd lose all these wonderful things you taught me and I don't ever want to go back to before I knew you. You're my best friend and I don't want to lose you." A tear leaked out of the corner of Jane's eye and she impatiently wiped it away. Maura's breath caught in her throat at Jane's words.

"I was scared too," Maura finally admitted. "I… Didn't want you to find me down there beaten or dead. I kept thinking about how you would feel if you finally found me but you were too late. I didn't want you to have to experience any more pain than you already did. I'm sorry Jane, I never should have opened the bay doors alone when I knew somebody was after us."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Jane spoke quietly but surely. "Remember earlier when you were saying that it wasn't my fault? Well, It's no more yours than it is mine. We can't control other people's actions. We can only control how we react to them, and you did the right things." Jane squeezed Maura's hand as she spoke.

"You are deceptively complex, Jane Rizzoli," Maura smiled over to her favorite person on the planet, and then frowned when Jane's phone started to vibrate in her sweatpants' pocket. Jane sighed and answered as politely as she could.

"Hi, Ma…" Jane looked apologetically over to Maura who shook her head to indicate that the Detective shouldn't worry. "Uhhh, no, I was gonna stay and take care of Maura… Yeah, the one with the dimples… I'm gonna kill Frankie...No-no she's okay! No, we don't need you to do that… Mother, you can't just invite yourself over to other people's houses… _because it's rude_… Fine, I'll ask her." Jane rolled her eyes and looked over to Maura while she held the mouthpiece of the phone to her chest to muffle what her mother could hear. "She wants to come over tomorrow and have family Sunday here," Jane explained apologetically to a very curious looking Maura.

"What's family Sunday?" The Me asked, and Jane internally groaned that the excitement in her friend's face.

"My Ma cooks really good food and then yells at all her kids for a few hours," Jane supplied, and the two women broke out laughing at the loud protests that could be heard coming from the phone.

"I'd love to have her, and Frankie too if he's not working. I adore your family." Maura smiled and Jane grinned at her while shaking her head, speaking back into the cell.

"She says it's okay… Frankie knows the address, just get him to pick you up... Yeah, yeah, love you too, Ma." Jane rolled her eyes and hung up. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into here, Doctor Isles." Jane grinned at Maura who shivered in the bath. The water had cooled.

"Can you get me a towel please?" Maura asked. Jane nodded and stood, moving to grab a towel that was hanging on the bathroom door. She was going to hand it to the ME and leave, but instead, she heard Maura stand up in the tub. Jane averted her gaze to the ceiling and the smaller woman wrapped the towel under her arms. It was large and fluffy enough to fit around Maura's torso and hang below her hips. Jane was thankful that everything would be covered, she wasn't sure her skin could stand to get any redder than it already was. "Jane," Maura said sweetly, and Jane looked down from the ceiling into a smiling Maura's face. "You're adorable." The smaller woman stated adoringly and she stepped out of the tub and into a stunned Jane's arms.

Jane chuckled at herself for acting like a schoolgirl and smiled back down into Maura's face. She reached up to run her finger over Maura's split lip and leaned down to tenderly kiss the bruising across her cheek. She reached her hand up and undid the clip that held Maura's hair up, letting it fall into its loose curls around her shoulders and back.

"And you are stunning." Jane husked out before she wrapped her arms around the smaller woman's waist. Maura's eyes flickered down to Jane's lips and she smirked slightly as she thought to all the time's Jane had kissed her. A quick peck to her forehead or into her hair. The lips pressed sweetly to her hands. The last time Jane had kissed her hand moments ago, when they both leaned in to kiss each other on the cheek. She thought of how they'd almost kissed in the morgue before Jane's phone rang. She glanced up into Jane's eyes and saw the thoughts reflected there. Jane ran one of her hands up Maura's back and over her shoulder, leaving a trail across her clavicle and up her neck. She finally got to Maura's chin which she lifted. The women gazed into each other's eyes and no words needed to be spoken for them to understand the other. They each longed for the other in a way they hadn't experienced before. One, never having loved a woman before, the other never having loved a friend before, but both completely willing to ignore those facts about themselves to give a chance to what they had only ever found with the other.

Maura eased herself up and forward onto her toes and Jane leaned her head down to meet her halfway. Their eyes closed to give in to the feeling of their lips pressing softly against each other for the first time. They both gasped and pulled slightly away at the surge of energy that seemed to pass through them to look once more into the other's eyes before they each leaned in for a longer, slower, more passionate second kiss. Their lips explored the other's slowly until Maura got impatient with Jane's restraint. The blonde let her tongue drag across Jane's lower lip and she felt the Brunette sigh slightly at the feeling, granting Maura her impatient access. Their tongues met and Maura moaned slightly at the contact and, forgetting that she was wearing only a towel, let go of the material to wrap her arms around Jane's waist.

Jane felt the movement and knew that Maura's naked front was now pressed against the thin material of her tank top so she reached up to hold the towel to Maura's back and tangle her other hand in the blonde hair that she loved so much, saving her friend's dignity but still passionately invested in the kiss. Jane shuddered at the feeling of Maura's chest pushing into her body and longed for skin to skin contact. Maura bit and pulled on Jane's lower lip and retraced her hands from the waist before her and she cleverly danced her fingers under the material that was separating their bodies. Her fingers slowly traced their way up to Jane's abdominal muscles and she felt the olive skin quiver under her touch. The reaction Jane's body was having to her pushed her forward and as her hands slowly brought Jane's shirt up, she removed her lips from the brunettes to instead leave open-mouthed kisses to the taller woman's neck. Jane leaned her head back and sighed at how Maura's ministrations were making her feel, clinging tightly to Maura's hair and towel. Maura's hands made their way up to Jane's chest and she pushed her palms up and into the small, firm breasts that she found there. Jane groaned at the contact and Maura moaned at the sound and the feeling of Jane's breasts in her hands. Jane finally lost to the kisses, dropped her hand from the towel and pressed her palm firmly against Maura's lower back, drawing her impossibly closer.

Maura pulled at the material of Jane's tank top and Jane released the smaller woman from her grasp just long enough for her to get the shirt over her head. They both moaned at the contact of their bare chests pressing together and Maura continued to leave a trail of kisses across Jane's chest. Jane's hands moved down to grab Maura's ass as the blonde pulled one of Jane's breasts into the heat of her mouth. Maura groaned into Jane's chest and the brunette moaned at the feeling of Maura's tongue on her breast. Jane looked down to see what Maura was doing to her but she stilled from what she saw across her chest.

"Maura," Jane breathed out. The blonde sensed the sudden stiffness of the Detective's body and pulled away to look at her. "Your lip is bleeding." Jane removed a hand from Maura's body to point at the ME's mouth. The blonde looked at the slight red smudges across Jane's neck and chest and reached a finger up to her lip. She withdrew it and huffed impatiently at the blood she saw on her finger. She pouted up at Jane, who chuckled at the display before picking the towel up from the floor to offer to Maura.

"Thanks," Maura sighed out, wrapping herself up again. Maura moved to the bathroom drawer that housed her medical supplies. Jane, leaving her tank top on the floor where it had dropped, followed and used her hands to guide Maura to sit on the closed lid of the toilet.

"Let me help," Jane kneeled in front of the ME. "Tell me what to do," Jane instructed as she looked at the materials in the first aid kit. Maura walked her through the steps of caring for the injury and admired the concentrated care on Jane's face. She looked down at the dusty pink nipples of Jane's chest and she went to bite her own lip again before she remembered that it was being treated.

"Not very doctorly, Doctor Isles," Jane chastised her when she realized why Maura was fidgeting, and Maura tried to control the smirk that was trying to spread across her face.

"Have you ever been with a woman before?" Maura asked curiously. Jane blushed and focused harder on Maura's lip.

"No," she feigned casualness, "why? Was I not a superstar with the kissing?" Jane grinned through her slight insecurity.

"God, no, you were fine." Maura comforted her immediately. "I was merely curious… What do you like about me?" Maura asked, and Jane smiled up at her.

"What _don't _I like about you?" Jane joked and leaned in to kiss the side of Maura's mouth. The ME was surprised at Jane's boldness of forgoing her shirt.

"You're not as… shy as I thought you'd be," Maura smiled to her friend. "Any time I tried to bring sex up before you'd just go quiet or blush and say, what was it? _'Dear God, woman, shut up_?'" Jane laughed at the comment and finished fixing up the plump lips that she loved so much.

"Yeah, 'cause every time you've tried to bring it up you were asking me in front of my brother or Frost or somebody who does _not _need to know about my sex life. Or you were asking me how attractive I found someone else, which made me feel weird because I really only had eyes for you." Jane batted her eyelashes for emphasis and Maura laughed.

"Well, what do you find attractive about me?" Maura was genuinely curious. "Have you been attracted to other women or was it only men?" Jane thought over the question.

"I think… I think I just need to be connected to a person emotionally before I can start to feel anything for them in a sexual way. It's always been like that, I just never realized it, or that I might also be attracted to women because I didn't have very many female friends to build a relationship with." Jane shrugged as she explained how she thought her body worked shamelessly and Maura was pleased to see that Jane was so open.

"Ah, I believe that's called demisexuality, it's quite interesting really!" Maura began her google mouthing and Jane smiled at her lovingly.

"I'm sure it is, Maur, but I don't need a label to be comfortable with it." Jane shrugged and pulled both of them up unto a standing position.

"Jane," Maura lightly traced one of her fingers slowly down Jane's chest and in between the muscles of her stomach, following her movements with her eyes. "You're beautiful." Jane blushed and leaned down to gently kiss the ME.

"You stop that or your lip is gonna start bleeding again." Jane grinned and Maura giggled. The ME reached up to make sure the towel was secure before she leaned down to grab Jane's shirt.

"Then you better put this on because I find your body distracting to no end." Maura looked up to Jane with a shameless smile and the brunette smirked down at the desire that was clear in Maura's eyes. The dark pupils of the eyes of the smaller woman had overtaken most of the hazel and it bolstered Jane's confidence to know that Maura was just as aroused as she was.

"Maybe we should watch one of your boring french documentaries again so we can calm down." Jane joked and laughed when Maura smacked her stomach with the back of her hand with a scoff.

"Jane," Maura tutted and walked out of her bathroom and into her closet. Jane followed, pulling on her shirt and then leaning against the doorframe, watching Maura rifle through her pajama drawer. Maura seemed to decide on something and was about to unravel the towel when she noticed Jane in the doorway. "Were you just going to stand there and watch, Detective?" Maura asked sultrily, expecting Jane to blush and pull away, but the brunette continued to surprise her.

"Yup." She crossed her arms and smirked, waggling her eyebrows slightly. Maura, ever ready for a challenge, simply grinned and let the towel drop to the floor, placing her hands on her hips and waiting to see how Jane would react. Jane slowly looked down from Maura's face and to her perky, sizeable breasts and her heartbeat increased. She took in the blonde's yoga toned stomach and felt her mouth salivate at the sight of the neatly kept hair at the apex of Maura's strong legs. Jane closed her eyes and let out a slow breath before looking back into Maura's face. "Nope." She changed her mind and left to set up the most boring movie she could find, leaving Maura laughing after her.

Maura eventually made her way downstairs after settling on the silk nightie she had worn the first time Jane had slept over. She smiled at the sight of Jane channel surfing while she waited, beer in hand and a glass of wine waiting on the coffee table for Maura. Jane took her breath away with how she showed she cared. The Brunette was constantly letting Maura know just how important she was to the Detective, but she didn't need words to do it. The blonde appreciated Jane's wordless proclamations of caring; she found that words just complicated things like emotions so it was good for her to have found someone to show their feelings along with speaking them. Maura was amazed at the strength of the other woman and realized she was in awe of the other woman just as much as Jane was in awe of her. For the first time in her life, the relationship she had created with someone felt almost effortless. Even if the women had disagreements or misunderstood the other, there was still an underlying feeling of steadiness that they both felt they could rely on. Maura walked around the back of the couch and kissed the top of Jane's head before she sat next to the brunette.

"_Why _did you think that would be better than a towel?" Jane asked accusingly, pointing to Maura's nightie. The ME laughed as she leaned in to settle herself under Jane's arm and into the other woman's side. Jane immediately wrapped her arms around the smaller woman and they both let out a content sigh.

"I didn't," Maura smiled up at Jane and the brunette rolled her eyes before she leaned down to quickly kiss Maura's smirking lips.

"Well, I'll get my revenge tomorrow I'm sure," Jane sipped her beer. "Just you wait until my Ma shows up." Jane shook her head. There were no words to prepare Maura for what family Sundays entailed, so Jane just gave Maura a warning look and the ME smiled disbelievingly at her. There was no way Rizzoli dinner could be that bad, was there?

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**I am SO looking forward to writing the next chapter! Ya'll should be looking forward to it too LMAO B) **


	16. Chapter 16

**This chapter is a little more lax than I was intending but it serves to get us from point A to point B. My writing muse has been elusive and I have an insane work schedule right now, but I'm still invested in this story. :) Enjoy some cute fluff.**

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Maura woke to feel a slight tickling on her nose and a pressure on her chest. She smiled with her eyes closed at the feeling of Jane pressed into her side, resting her head under the ME's chin. She tilted her head down to kiss the unruly curls that were tickling her face as she remembered how adorable Jane had been the night before when she'd been unsure of where to sleep. Maura chuckled at the memory and Jane grumbled at the movement. The Detective lifted her head from Maura's chest and looked up into the blonde's smiling face.

"Dear God, you even look like a model first thing in the morning," Jane stated it as if she were annoyed by the fact, but her cheeky grin let Maura know it was a joking compliment.

"You look beautiful all the time," Maura leaned down to quickly kiss Jane and the brunette blushed. She wasn't used to waking up in somebody's arms or getting flowers or being called beautiful. Normally she'd hate it if men did this to her but it felt different coming from Maura. The ME had a way to make her feel loved without it feeling forced or like she'd have to pay the actions back somehow. The ME made Jane feel both like the protector and protected at the same time. Jane felt she could be any version of herself with Maura and the ME would like them all the same. She felt safe with the Doctor, and that was a feeling she'd never found in anybody before.

"I thought you couldn't lie," Jane joked.

"It's the truth," Maura gazed into Jane's dark eyes and lifted her hand to trace her finger over Jane's lips and across one of Jane's cheekbones. "Absolutely beautiful." Jane smiled sweetly up at Maura and pushed herself up onto her elbows so she could lean in and kiss the ME soundly. She decided that now that she could, she would kiss Maura as often as possible.

"Yeah, well supermodels or not, nature calls," Jane batted her lashes and pushed up off of the bed to walk to the bathroom. Maura smiled after Jane as the brunette walked away, entertained by the fierce Detective's tendency to downplay compliments with humor. The ME decided that it would be an opportune day to return the favor of cooking breakfast so she dressed in her more casual attire and headed down to the kitchen.

As Maura prepared the coffee and a very fruit-filled breakfast, she fleetingly hoped that this breakfast wouldn't end with Jane's phone ringing to let them know of a body. She shook her head at herself for correlating breakfast with Jane to murders, she knew the two had nothing to do with each other but she couldn't quite shake the feeling that something bad might happen. Jane wasn't even on-call that weekend. She placed the made coffees and the food down on the island and then gripped the countertop to try to steady her irrational mind. She didn't hear the Detective making her way downstairs and only became aware of the other woman's presence when Jane wrapped her arms around Maura's waist from behind.

"What's the matter?" Jane asked as she kissed the side of Maura's head.

"Nothing," Maura received an accusatory look before she continued. "I'm being irrational. The last time we ate breakfast I was happy and everything was great and then your phone rang and I had to autopsy the most mangled corpse I have ever seen. I can't stop feeling like something bad will happen once we finish eating breakfast." Maura turned in Jane's arms to face the other woman.

"Well, then we have nothing to worry about because there's no way in_ hell_ I am eating those." Jane pointed down at what she thought was a stack of cactus leaves sitting next to their plates. Maura glanced in the direction Jane was pointing and full-body laughed. "Why are you laughing? I don't care how healthy it is, Maura, I'm not eating it." Jane continued petulantly while she pointed between the food and herself. Maura tried to wave off Jane's joke to indicate that the items in question were not for human consumption but she found Jane too amusing so she had to speak around her laughter.

"Oh, Jane, no," Maura held a hand to her chest in her laughter. "Those aren't for us… they're for Bass."

"Oh thank God!" Jane made a show of her relief and earned a swat to the stomach from Maura who was still giggling. Jane sat in one of the stools at the islands and pointed to one of the mugs, in a way of asking if it was hers. Maura nodded and sat down too, all anxiety about breakfast vanished from her mind. Jane kept asking Maura questions about Bass and where he was from or why his shell was patterned in such a way and the ME spoke of her tortoise in between chewing and she didn't even realize that breakfast was even over until she was halfway through the known evolutionary line of the African spurred tortoise and was done loading up her dishwasher.

"Jane!" Maura shouted her surprise at being sufficiently distracted from her anxiety and Jane spilled coffee on her tank top in surprise at the sudden exclamation.

"Aw, _come on! _Maura!" Jane turned and looked accusingly at Maura, who just smiled at Jane's clumsiness.

"You're wonderful you know," Maura said as she walked over to hand Jane a paper towel. The Doctor was amazed at how instinctively Jane could act when someone else was in distress and how well the Detective could ease another person from their worries. Jane took the paper towel exaggeratedly and amusedly glared up at Maura while she patted her shirt dry.

"Yeah, I know," Jane mumbled.

"Jane," Maura's tone changed. "Can I ask you something?" Jane looked up at the worry in her friend's voice.

"You just did, I suppose another question won't hurt," Jane smirked at her own joke and Maura rolled her eyes before she because serious again.

"Are we dating?" Maura tilted her head to the side and intently stared at Jane. It was a look the Detective had seen many times, and it always caused her heart to flutter.

"Do you want to be dating?" Jane asked, just as seriously.

"Yes," Maura smiled.

"Then yes," Jane smiled back. "How could I resist?" Jane asked in disbelief as she watched Maura close the distance between them to capture the Detectives face in her hands, and her lips in a kiss, in just as much disbelief as Jane.

"I don't want to lose our friendship, Jane," Maura said as she pulled away slightly.

"Well," Jane tilted her head to the side. "We've basically been dating since we met if you really think about it… we just didn't realize. I don't think I even noticed that I was trying to _woo_ you." Jane chuckled and Maura smiled.

"Well, your courting worked," the blonde chuckled.

"Couldn't resist my_ feminine wiles_?" Jane joked and waggled her eyebrows at the ME, who laughed more.

"Mm-mm," Maura shook her head in the negative and Jane laughed too.

The two spent their morning laughing with each other and sipping coffee together on the couch while Maura tried to read and Jane tried to watch tv, but both were too distracted by the other's shenanigans to pay attention to the T.V. or reading. Jane was tickling Maura's feet and then adamantly pretending to pay attention to the television and Maura would nudge the Detective's thigh with her toes to get Jane's attention, but then would pretend to be reading. Jane pretended to be getting annoyed and huffed. Maura just nudged with her toes again and Jane decided to toss a pillow into Maura's face.

"Jane!" The ME complained in amused surprise.

"What?" Jane feigned innocence. "It's called a _throw_ pillow," she reasoned innocently and Maura chuckled while shaking her head. "What, no google mouth for the proper reason it's called a throw pillow?"

"You're... technically correct," Maura explained. "One does not generally _throw_ it at somebody's head, though," Maura took Jane off guard by throwing the pillow back.

"Hey! How _dare _you!" Jane pretended to be offended and exaggerated her responses. "Oh, it's _on_," Jane said and she gently tossed a spare pillow over to Maura before she took her own and immediately moved to whack Maura's side with the pillow.

"Jane!" Maura exclaimed in amused shock as she set down her reading material. "We are grown women, are we really going to have a pillow fight right now?" The second light whack to her head was the answer she was looking for and Maura stood to get more leverage in her attacks, happy to have found someone she didn't always have to be professional or graceful around. Jane made everything fun. Easier. The Detective had taught Maura that a level of immaturity was welcome in life as long as it harboured fun. After Maura and Jane both got in a good few hits, Jane dropped her weapon and grabbed Maura to pull her back onto the couch. The blonde fell on top of the brunette and Jane leaned back so that they were both in a lying position. Jane was on her back and Maura was laying on her stomach, facing Jane. "Is that a forfeit?" Maura asked.

"Nah," Jane said, smiling. "I think I win." Maura looked in confusion down at Jane until the Detective explained what she met by simply kissing the ME soundly. "Oh, yeah, I definitely win," Jane smirked and Maura grinned back.

"Jane, you're very sweet," Maura smiled tenderly down to Jane, who blushed slightly.

"Shuddup," Jane mumbled and Maura chuckled before kissing her again.

The pair were interrupted by a knock at the door and the two women were surprised to see that it was already afternoon. Maura moved to the kitchen to double-check that everything looked clean and ready for guests. She was slightly nervous.

Jane went to answer the door with an exaggerated sigh and Maura grinned after her. The brunette let in her mother, who was holding a bottle of wine, and Frankie followed closely behind the eldest Rizzoli, struggling with multiple bags of groceries. Angela's eyes bugged out as she caught sight of Maura and tears sprang to her eyes.

"Oh, honey, look at you!" Angela put the bottle of wine on the island and embraced Maura in a tight hug. "Oh, dear, you must have been so scared." Maura stood shell-shocked and unable to move. She's never been embraced in such a way and she was incredibly surprised by the emotion of the matriarch. Angela was surprised to see the yellow bruising across Maura's face and the cut in the corner of the Doctor's bottom lip.

"Careful Ma, she's got bruised ribs too," Jane took hold of her mother's shoulders and went to pull her away but she saw the shock wearing off of Maura's face. The ME turned from surprised and as a small smile grew on her face, she embraced the woman who was holding her.

"Thank you, Angela, I'm fine now," Maura comforted the woman's worries. "Jane's been taking good care of me." Maura winked at Jane over Angela's shoulder and the Detective blushed. Frankie pretended not to notice and moved to place the bags on the island.

"She better be!" Angela let go of Maura and patted the ME's cheek as if she were one of her own children.

"She's been wonderful," Maura confirmed and Angela smiled before she started to cry.

"Uhh, Ma?" Jane took hold of her mother's shoulders and led the woman to the couch. "What's the matter, why are you crying? She's not hurt that bad." Jane looked to Maura in confusion and then to her brother who rolled his eyes and walked over.

"She's been doing that all weekend," he explained. "She won't tell me what's wrong." He looked accusingly at his mother but his eyes immediately softened.

"Ma, you gotta tell us what's wrong if we're gonna fix it…" Jane spoke slowly and kindly. "You taught us that." Angela just shook her head. "Ma…" Jane looked at her mother with her best staredown-glare and Angela finally broke.

"I lost the house!" She cried and Frankie stepped back from his mother incredulously.

"You what?" He shouted in unison with his sister.

"It's too much money and I can't afford it with this stupid job at the library, they don't pay me enough money and I just… I can't keep it." She covered her face in shame and Jane's heart softened for her mother. The elder Rizzoli had to work through so much and then she'd finally kicked out their father only to be left with a mass amount of debt in an old home that was falling apart. Angela had never told her children just how bad the debt ran.

"Ma," Jane sat next to her mother and put a hand on Angela's forearm. "Why didn't you say anything? You know we're here for you."

"Yeah," Frankie sat on her other side and removed his mother's hands from her tear-stained face. "We would have helped."

"Oh you kids," Angela looked between her children. "I know you would have. It's why I didn't say anything. It's not your job to take care of your mother." Angela patted Frankie's cheek and reached out to hold Jane's hand. "Oh, what am I gonna do?" She mused out loud.

"...You can come to stay with me," Jane offered lamely. Both women knew that they'd drive each other crazy. "You can have my room…"

"I'm not gonna impose on you," Angela waved her off.

"You wouldn't be imposing…" Jane lied and Angela chuckled at the selflessness of her daughter.

"You're more than welcome to stay in my guest house for as long as you'd like," Maura stated from her place in the kitchen. She'd been trying to give the family a bit of privacy but the open concept of her home made it impossible, and she wasn't the kind of woman who would turn away those in need.

"You do _not_ want to live with our mother," Frankie surprised everybody by piping up and Jane couldn't help but laugh at the unexpected exclamation from her usually respectful little brother.

"I'm a good guest!" Angela defended herself and both of her children looked over to Maura as if the Doctor had lost her mind.

"You'd be doing me a favor, Angela. I have to pay to get it cleaned every week, but if someone was living there then it would help to decrease the cost of housekeeping." Maura smiled at the family in front of her. Jane looked disbelievingly at Maura.

"Why are you doing this?" Jane asked, ever amazed at the grace and care of the blonde woman.

"Because she's your family," Maura said as if it was the most simple and obvious thing in the world. Angela and Frankie watched the two women communicate in silence.

"... I feel guilty," Jane stated, and her family was surprised to see her so plainly talk about how she was '_feeling_.' Jane usually pretended she didn't have any feelings.

"Hmm… Catholic guilt," Maura pointed to Jane and nodded, agreeing with her assessment. "Did you know that devout Catholics are more likely to show signs of OCD? The strict definitions of the sacraments is far too constraining."

"Well I hated confession," Jane supplied, unsure of how they'd moved from her mother's living arrangements to church.

"Oh, did you have a lot to confess to?" Maura smirked over to Jane and the Detective felt her cheeks redden at the loaded question.

"Well," Frankie stood and clapped his hands together. "How about we get started cooking, huh, Ma?" He looked down at Angela's contemplative face and then turned to go ask Maura how he could help.

"Are you sure, Doctor Isles?" Angela stood up to follow her son. "I don't want to butt in or overstay my welcome." The Rizzoli children glanced at each other; their mother was a professional at butting in and overstaying her welcome.

"I'm sure. The guest house is in the back so we won't actually be living together." Maura waved off the woman. "And, although you are welcome in my home anytime, we can come up with some sort of arrangement to ensure that you don't interrupt any time I might require privacy."

Angela took in Maura's words and glanced at her daughter's reddening face. It was clear to everyone in the room that Maura was talking about sex and Jane was absolutely mortified with the ME. Angela, however, was curious to see just how much information she could get out of the small Doctor she was quickly growing fond of.

"You have, uh, a lot of time that requires privacy?" Angela hazarded a question.

"Ma! Oh my God!" Jane tried to interrupt the conversation but knew it was futile. The ME was never ashamed to talk about sex. She seemed to rather enjoy it, actually.

"I plan to," Maura stated and smiled at Angela before she turned to continue pulling down dishes. Jane rubbed her face in her hands and decided that it was a good thing her mother had chosen this night to spill the beans on losing the house. If Maura had accidentally told her family that she and Maura had gotten together, then the eldest Rizzoli would have just heard that Maura planned of having a _lot _of sex with Jane, and that thought was enough to make the Detective want to crawl into a hole and die. No. Telling people could wait. Jane and Maura had only just decided to be dating. They hadn't had the time to talk about whether or not they'd tell anybody.

"And do you have a lot of… different guests?" Angela pressed.

"MA!" her children yelled together and Maura laughed at the prudish ways of Angela's children.

"Alright, I can tell when I've gone too far, I'll drop it!" Angela raised her hands in defeat and moved to the groceries on the island. Maura grinned mischievously at Jane when Angela wasn't looking and Jane scowled at the blonde.

"How can I help, Angela?" Maura turned to the eldest Rizzoli.

"So polite!" Angela exclaimed. "My Janie could learn a thing or two from you! I'm glad you're becoming such close friends." The Matriarch smiled over at Maura and noticed the sparkle in the green eyes of the other woman. She noticed the slight pink in the other woman's cheeks. She wondered if there was more to the Doctor's friendship with her daughter but knew that she shouldn't push for information. She knew her daughter well enough to know that if something was going on between the two women, that Jane would want to tell everybody on her own terms. That didn't mean she couldn't nudge her daughter down the right path, though.

"Janie! Why don't you help Maura with cutting the veggies while I start the roast?" Jane pouted and pointed to the baseball game that Frankie had turned on, but Angela gave her a 'mom stare' so Jane rolled her eyes and followed the suggestion. "Good. Now seems like a good time to get to know you, Doctor Isles." Angela smiled over at the ME and noticed that it was Jane who took the cutting boards out of a cupboard and got the knives from a drawer.

"You may call me Maura if you'd like," the ME smiled over to Angela who nodded her approval.

"You work with Janie on all her cases, right?" Angela asked. Jane was glad to hear the conversation move toward a safer topic.

"Not all of her cases, but we do work frequently together since our closing rate is so high when we team up," Maura explained.

"And you like your job?" Angela asked.

"Oh yes!" Maura exclaimed. "I love it. I like being able to help people… who are no longer able to help themselves. It's incredibly rewarding." Maura had the tact to avoid the more gruesome words that described her job. She didn't want to put Jane's mother off.

"So you're like my Janie, then." Angela nodded.

"Huh?" Jane asked at hearing her name. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you know," Angela waved her hand in the air. "Your job is the most important thing and you'd rather be working on a case than doing almost anything else."

"Yes, I suppose I am like Jane in that sense." Maura agreed contemplatively with a smile. Something about the topic seemed oddly familiar to Jane and it was making her feel nervous.

"You two must get along well then if you have to work so much together." Angela continued in her casual tone.

"Of course." Maura agreed as she and Jane began to chop up vegetables next to each other. "We may have slightly different approaches to analyzing crime scenes, but we've learned not to step on each other's feet too much."

"_Toes,_ Maura," Jane laughed and Maura looked up at her in confusion. "It's 'step on each other's toes'," Jane explained with a smile.

"Oh, my mistake," Maura grinned over to Jane who winked.

"And you seem to make Jane laugh quite a bit," Angela chuckled at the pair of them.

"Oh, I'm not that funny," Maura waved Angela's remark off. "Jane's the funny one. I don't think I've ever spent a day with her where I didn't laugh at least once."

"Don't sell yourself short," Jane nudged the other woman with her elbow. "Arguing about reddish-brown stains is the best part of my day," Jane teased.

"No, being_ right_ about the reddish-brown stains is the best part of your day," Maura corrected and Jane laughed.

Angela watched her daughter be amused by the smaller woman and smiled over at the pair of them. The Doctor seemed to fit perfectly with Jane's previously stated expectations of a partner and Angela was intrigued. She already liked Maura and Frankie had claimed that he didn't want to date Maura because the ME already liked somebody else… a woman. Angela found herself hoping that the woman Maura was interested in might be Jane but she decided not to say anything more about it. Instead the women small talked in the kitchen and Frankie absently watched baseball, knowing his mother would just shoo him out of the way if he tried to help. There was another knock on the door and the women looked up at it in confusion.

"Oh, I invited Frost and told him he could bring a friend if he wanted to," Frankie stood from the couch and paused to look at Maura. "Is that okay?"

"Of course," She smiled politely over to him. "The more the merrier, as they say. It seems we have enough food to feed at least four more people," She glanced down at the food and quickly did the math in her head for recommended serving sizes based on what they were making. Jane laughed, knowing exactly what was going through the ME's head.

"Yeah, Ma always cooks enough for an army. We'll probably have leftovers in the fridge all week!" Jane exclaimed and Angela pretended not to notice the familiar way Jane was talking about Maura's fridge as if she'd lived in the Doctor's house too.

"No complaints from me," Maura joked and Angela smiled over to her.

Frankie walked back into the kitchen leading a parade made up of Frost, Korsak and Susie Chang. Maura smiled at the unexpected sight of the Criminologist and waved excitedly over to the group.

"Korsak overheard me inviting Susie and kind of just…" Frost shrugged apologetically to Maura who laughed.

"What?" Korsak decided he should defend himself. "You think I'm gonna pass up a chance to eat Angela's cooking?" He asked Frost as if the notion was nonsensical, and then the elderly man smiled over to Angela.

"You're always welcome to my dinners, Vince," the Rizzoli matriarch smiled and her children, in unison, started to make gagging and retching sounds at their mother and Korsak's usual odd flirtation. "Oh, you stop that!" Angela chided her children.

"How's my morgue?" Maura asked Susie in a pleading way.

"It's…" Susie grimaced. "Pike rearranged everything and he didn't even floss a Jane Doe's teeth! She had defensive wounds! It took me five whole minutes to explain to him why he should floss her teeth if there were defensive wounds," Susie sighed in frustration and Maura looked just as helplessly frustrated at the incompetence of her predecessor. Maura noticed that Angela looked confused and decided to explain.

"She might have bitten her assailant," the ME spoke quietly over to Angela, who appreciated that Maura spoke quietly enough that only the three women in the kitchen could hear.

"I'll help you put everything back where it belongs on Monday when you get back, Maura" Susie offered and Maura smiled.

"Thank you, Susie," the ME said, and Jane was surprised and happy to see that the two women seemed to be on friendly first-name terms. Maura deserved to have as much friendship and kindness as possible, so Jane smiled approvingly at Susie, who nervously smiled back.

"Frankie," Angela decided that the work talk should be over with. "Would you please set the table? And somebody take over for Maura, she shouldn't be helping at all."

"Oh, it's not a problem, Angela, really," Maura protested but the eldest Rizzoli held up a hand to stop the protest.

"No, no, you're injured _and_ you've already done so much for me. Let me at least cook a nice meal while you relax." At Angela's no-nonsense look, Maura nodded and looked to Jane for direction. The Detective laughed.

"Why don't you go show Susie that _super interesting _book about the female Viking warriors?" Jane suggested and Maura adorably perked up at the thought of sharing such an interesting book with somebody who could appreciate its contents. Maura led the Criminologist to her office and Frost took over cutting vegetables next to Jane.

"Glad to see you two made up," He smiled over to Jane, who rolled her eyes but grinned.

"Yeah, yeah, you were right," Jane mumbled.

"I was what?" Frost teased. "Sorry, I don't think I heard that right."

"Shut up, _Barold," _Jane teased back. "But uh… Thanks." Jane's tone switched to a more serious one. "You know, for trying to tell me how much of a dumbass I was."

"Jane!" Angela scolded and Jane flinched. "That is not dinner appropriate talk!"

"Nobody is eating, Ma," Jane defended and Angela tsked. Frost stifled his grin as best he could and Frankie laughed at his sister getting in trouble. Korsak moved to help Frankie set the table and Angela took the cut-up vegetables and shooed everybody out of the kitchen so she could continue in peace.

"So," Jane started as she and Frost sat on the couch to watch the game. "You invited Susie?"

"Yeah," Frost shrugged casually as he watched the game. "Her and Maura seem like they would be good friends."

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that Chang's smart and pretty and funny, huh?" Jane eyed her partner with a grin and laughed at the small shake of Frost's head and the slight blush on his cheeks. "Mhmm."

"Shut up, Rizzoli," Frost rolled his eyes at Jane. "Focus on your own scientist, would you? Just _how much_ did the two of you 'make up?'" Frost asked with air quotes. "Is it official yet or what?" Frost got his answer at the panicked blush that crossed Jane's face.

"Keep it down!" Jane chastised him. "Nobody knows yet and we didn't have time to talk about telling people!" Frost grinned at her and clapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, I won't say anything except that I'm happy for you both!" He smiled. "I've been gunning for the two of you to get together since you met!" He teased and Jane rolled her eyes.

"Yeah well, looks like you've got your eyes on a different Geek Squad member, huh?" Jane teased back and Frost scowled. Jane chuckled and dropped the subject, glad that Frost's teasing of her would likely decrease now that she had some ammo of her own. They watched the game and Frankie and Korsak joined too. They all sat drinking beer and yelling at the screen until Angela called over to tell Jane to get Maura and Susie.

R&I

"That's intriguing!" Susie exclaimed. "The more we learn about Viking culture, the more it indicates a society of exact equality between males and females. I can't believe that exactly half of all warriors were women."

"I know!" Maura agreed excitedly. "There's even proof now of a multitude of same-sex marriages and transgender individuals."

"Speaking of," Susie decided to change the topic, even though she found the book incredibly interesting. "Are you and Detective Rizzoli dating?" Maura paused and looked at her friend. She couldn't lie, especially not now that the question was so direct. She found the question slightly off-putting but was also glad to have made a friend that was so comfortable in asking such questions.

"We…" Maura paused. She didn't want to upset Jane by telling anybody but she couldn't see a way out of telling the truth. "We haven't discussed whether it's appropriate for us to tell people," Maura finally admitted, and the ME laughed as Susie clapped her hands together and bounced excitedly on the spot.

"That's fantastic!" Susie exclaimed. "I won't say anything, but just so you know, you can talk to me about it if you want to."

"Talk about what?" Jane asked from the doorway and the other two women jumped.

"Vikings!" Susie offered rather loudly and Jane looked suspiciously between the two guilty-looking scientists.

"Uh-huh…" Jane said as she studied the women. "Dinner is almost ready, Geek Squad," Jane teased and the three women left to enter the kitchen together.

Maura took the empty seat at the head of the table and Jane sat next to her. Frost was seated on Maura's other side so Susie squeezed in next to him, while Frankie sat next to his sister. Korsak helped Angela serve the food and pour the wine until the two finally took two of the last three remaining seats; Angela at the other head of the table and Korsak on her left.

"Uhh, Ma?" Frankie began. "You set an extra plate out, there are only seven of us."

"That's for the turtle," Angela defended herself and Jane burst out laughing.

"Tortoise!" Maura corrected from across the table, making Jane laugh more. "You planned this, didn't you?" Maura accused the Detective. Jane nodded and grinned, which made Maura scowl at her. "What am I going to do with you?"

Frost and Susie both grinned and wished they could tell each other what they had learned. The two had run into each other in the cafe at work and ended up talking about Jane and Maura and how well each woman would fit the other. They both wanted to express their excitement that the two women were finally dating, but respected their friends too much to share the secret that wasn't theirs.

"You could hurry up and come back to work!" Korsak said to Maura from across the table. "Jane's been downright miserable to work with without you there." Jane rolled her eyes at the older man, but Frost nodded in agreement and Frankie joined in too.

"She hit me with a case file when I didn't take it fast enough, Maura, she's been a nightmare." He joked.

"I'm sitting right here!" Jane interrupted.

"Janie, you should be nice to your brother!" Angela said.

"See?" Jane spoke to Maura, "What did I tell you? She cooks delicious food and then yells at her children for a few hours," Maura laughed, remembering Jane's explanation from the previous night.

"That is _not _what Family Sunday is about, Jane Clementine Rizzoli!" Angela chastised from across the table.

"They why does it happen every week?" Jane shot back, only to be interrupted by a very curious Maura.

"Your middle name is Clementine?" The ME asked, completely enamored with the Detective next to her. Jane groaned and shot a seething look to her mother who chuckled.

"Thank you for that, Ma, so much," Jane sassed out.

"I thought it was pretty!" Angela defended and everybody laughed.

"It is!" Maura agreed, "I like it, it's much better than mine," she mumbled before she took a sip of wine.

"What's yours?" Frankie asked. Maura's eyes widened and she paused mid-sip of wine.

"Yeah, Maur, what's _your _middle name?" Jane asked, sensing the ME's alarm.

"It's um…" Maura glanced around trying to find something to change the topic to, finding nothing. "It's not relevant."

"You're not gonna get out of this, Doctor Isles," Jane prodded and Maura rolled her eyes.

"Dorthea," Maura muttered and Jane smiled widely.

"Oh, I am _so _going to have a field day with this," Jane said excitedly.

"Okay, Clementine," Maura flirted and laughed at Jane sticking out her tongue, the ME unconsciously leaned toward Jane and accidentally knocked a fork off of the table with her elbow.

"Ooo, dropped a fork! You should expect a female visitor!" Angela exclaimed from across the table and Jane almost spit out her drink.

"Ma, come on," Frankie chided. "You still into all that superstitious stuff? Do you _know _how many cracks I've stepped on? Your back doesn't look broken to me." Jane laughed at her brother's sarcasm; she'd taught him well.

"What? I'm just saying what it could mean!" Angela defended and Maura grinned over at Jane and tried to discreetly arc an eyebrow at her; she did intend to have a frequent female visitor.

"Stop that, _Dorkthea," _Jane muttered so only Maura would heart and the ME laughed.

"You expecting any lady guests, Doctor Isles?" Korsak asked innocently and Frost grinned over at Jane while Susie stifled her laughter.

"Uh, yes," Maura offered simply, making Frost and Susie chuckle. Jane rubbed her reddening face and stood up.

"Well!" The Detective stopped the line of conversation. "Who wants to help me clean up?" Maura, ever the hostess, immediately stood to help.

"No, no!" Angela protested. "You will sit here and you will enjoy your wine" Angela ordered and she stood up to refill Maura's glass.

"If you insist," Maura obliged.

"I do," Angela confirmed. "Frankie can clean up, he didn't help much with the setup. Vince, care to help clear the plates?" Everyone followed the eldest Rizzoli's direction and Maura was entertained by the notion that every Rizzoli had the power to command every room they walked into when they chose to. Frost and Susie made their way to the living room while Korsak and Angela's children cleaned up after dinner, leaving Maura and Angela alone at the table.

"So," Angela smiled over to Maura. "You seem to care about my Janie." Maura sipped her wine and watched amusedly after Jane, who was clearly teasing her brother.

"I do," Maura confirmed and smiled over to Angela. "She's my best friend," Angela smiled at the ME.

"Well, I can say for certain that she cares about you too," Angela patted Maura on the cheek again and the ME found she quite enjoyed the motherly ways of the woman next to her.

The baseball game ended and Frost switched the channel over to a music station that was playing some sort of smoothe jazz that Maura liked but didn't recognize. Jane and the guys had finished cleaning up after dinner and they moved back toward the kitchen.

"Care to dance, Angela?" Korsak offered a hand to the Rizzoli matriarch and she took it. The pair began slow circles in the space between the table and the couch. Not to be outdone by his Sergeant, Frost offered his arm to Susie and joined in too. Maura smiled at the people dancing in her home, glad that the space was finally filled with loving, happy people; like she'd always wanted. She smiled at Jane, thankful that the Detective had brought so much happiness into her life. She smiled wider still when Jane held a hand out to her.

"Should I lead or should I follow?" Maura asked smiling as she accepted Jane's offer to dance.

"Mmm," Jane seemed to think, "you can lead first." Jane placed one of her hands around Maura's shoulder and surprised the ME by taking the proper 'feminine' form, waiting for Maura to grasp her hand in the air. The Doctor placed one hand to the small of Jane's back and held the waiting hand in the air before she smiled devilishly and led Jane in a dance around the room at a pace she'd figured would be rather difficult, but Jane kept up just fine. Jane laughed at Maura's shock and let go of Maura's shoulder to spin the ME by the hand before she took on the 'male' part. Maura let herself be led around the room expertly by Jane and the women smiled at each other while they danced. Neither noticed that they were the only two left on the makeshift dance floor until the song ended and they had to let go of each other. Jane bowed deeply, causing Maura to laugh and curtsy back.

"I didn't know you could dance!" Maura exclaimed in excitement.

"Yeah, I may have wanted to be a ballerina when I was little…" Jane blushed at the surprised looks she received from Frost and Korsak. "Until I decided I wanted to be a field hockey attacker!" She defended.

"I was in ballet too!" Maura said excitedly. "And fencing, as you know."

"Those are _not _sports," Jane sassed and Maura scoffed.

"Yes, they are!" The ME defended.

"Oh Jane," Angela interrupted, "You would have made such a beautiful dancer, honey. You're so _tall!" _

"Yeah, or I could've been a basketball player," Jane snarked.

"Not likely," Frankie scoffed. "Our last score was what? Eighteen to eight?"

"Zip it, Francesco," Jane complained and Frankie and Frost both laughed.

"Oh man," Frost joined in on the teasing. "Do you remember last month when we played Detectives versus Rookies and we _lost _because of you?" Jane groaned in shame.

"Okay, well maybe if we played America's actual pastime I would be useful," Jane defended herself.

"Oh, can I join in on that?" Susie asked and everyone turned to look at her in surprise. "What? I was on my university's varsity team," She shrugged.

"I'd love to play too!" Maura chimed in.

"You cannot ruin a national pastime with science, Maura!" Jane pointed to the ME while she scolded and Maura looked offended.

"I would never!" Maura defended herself, "I know all of the optimal batting stances!"

"Have you ever _played _baseball?" Jane asked, her voice laced with sarcasm.

"No, but I understand the theory, I've been watching it with you for weeks!" Maura stated.

"Theory and practice are two very different things," Jane held up a finger as if she was making a scientific point and Maura scowled at her with a grin.

"Well," Maura's competitive side decided to show itself. "I've been looking for a team-building exercise for my squad, and it seems that this would be an optimal situation to both do that _and _prove you wrong." Maura placed her hands on her hips and waited for Jane to take the bait.

"Is that a challenge, Doctor Isles?" Jane asked in shameless flirtation.

"It is indeed, Detective Rizzoli," Maura confirmed. "My Geek Squad versus any Detectives or Officers you choose." Jane looked at Korsak, Frost, and Frankie; all men nodded to show that they were in.

"Alright," Jane conceded. "What are the terms?" Maura seemed to think about it.

"Losers buy drinks at the Dirty Robber, and if you lose, _you_ have to let Angela and I take you shopping," Maura smiled sweetly over to a scowling Jane and Angela clapped in excitement.

"...Fine. But if I win, you have to wear _my_ outfits for an entire week," Jane grinned mischievously at Maura who took a moment to think through the terms before she extended her hand.

"Deal," The ME said and the two women shook hands.

"Oh man," Susie interrupted, "The squad is gonna be excited about this!"

"Yeah, until they lose," Frost nudged the Criminalist with his elbow.

"In your dreams," Susie shot back.

"What team do you cheer for?" Jane asked the Criminalist, who lifted her pant leg to show the Red Sox logo on her sock. Jane laughed and nodded approvingly.

"Janie," Angela spoke. "Would you mind driving me home? I think Frankie drank too much of the wine and I'm tired."

"Yeah, we should head out too, it's late and we all have to work tomorrow," Frost said.

"Thanks for letting my Ma host dinner here, Maura," Frankie said as he embraced the blonde woman in a hug.

"Careful, little bro, her ribs," Jane reminded Frankie who grimaced in apology. "Go get my gym bag from the guest room upstairs, it's the one on the left," Jane ordered her brother and he nodded.

"See you guys tomorrow," Frost said as he waved to Jane and Maura, leading Susie out of the door. Angela walked up to the two women and kissed them both on the cheek.

"I'll be waiting in the car," Angela said and Korsak held out his arm to lead the eldest Rizzoli to her destination.

"See ya Janie, Doc," Korsak waved over his shoulder.

"So," Jane turned and stepped close to Maura, grabbing one of her hands now that they were alone. "Did you suffer through my revenge okay?" Jane asked jokingly, referencing her previous exclaimed payback for Maura wearing the nightie to bed.

"I didn't suffer at all, Jane," Maura smiled. "I adore your mother, she's so sweet and caring. Now I know where you get it."

"Oh, vomit," Jane fake gagged and Maura chuckled.

"Really, your family is so…" Maura paused and looked up into Jane's face. "I envy you." Maura smiled and Jane smiled too, knowing how lucky she was to have the family that she did.

"They adore you too," Jane murmured and Maura's smile widened. "How could they not?" Maura, lost for words, simply leaned forward onto her toes and captured Jane's lips in a kiss. Jane stroked the side of Maura's face and smiled crookedly when they pulled away. Frankie walked down the stairs quietly and pretended he hadn't seen.

"Hey Jane, you ready?" He asked once the two women were mostly separated.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Maur," Jane husked into Maura's ear, and the ME smiled at the promise. Jane leaned down to place one last kiss to the Doctor's cheek as she turned to follow her brother to her car. For the second week in a row, she couldn't wait to start her workweek.

Maura sighed blissfully after Jane, content enough with how the evening ended even though Jane had to leave. All in all, she had a very good experience with the Rizzoli family. She began to think of her own mother and compared the stark differences between Angela and Constance. As if thinking of her mother could summon the woman, Maura's phone began to ring the familiar chime of her mother's tone. Maura panicked.

"M-mother, hello!" Maura answered in a rather high pitched voice.

"_Darling! It's so late, I wasn't sure you'd pick up!"_

"I had a dinner party," Maura explained.

"_Wonderful! I'm glad to hear you're making enough friends to throw such things. Anybody of special interest I should hear about?"_

"Well, I didn't technically throw it… My… Jane's mother needed somewhere to host a Family Dinner and I offered my home." Maura nervously stated, she swore she could hear her mother thinking through the phone. She knew her mother would see her evasion of the question and cursed her inability to lie.

_"You must be quite close with this Jane if you so willingly offered you home up to her family..."_

"Yes, we've become quite close... we work together," Maura gave as little detail as she could get away with. Her mother had hated ever partner the ME had ever introduced to her and she didn't want Jane to experience the completely blunt and analytical ways of Constance Isles. The woman said what she thought with reckless abandon no matter the consequence, a trait the Maura both admired and feared. People thought the Maura was an open book... She was a vault compared to her mother.

"_Well, I won't keep you. I was just calling to inform you that I'd be in Boston tomorrow hosting an art gala and wished to extend an invitation to you… And bring this Jane, I'd like to meet her." _

"Y-yes, Mother, of course," Maura spoke into the phone and heard the receiver go silent; her mother had hung up. "Mother phooey," Maura stated to thin air. She needed to warn Jane.

* * *

During the car ride to drop off her mother, Jane couldn't decide if she enjoyed or was annoyed by her Mother's constant rambling admiration for Doctor Maura Isles.

"Oh, and for her to so graciously offer her second home up to a woman she's only met twice... Janie, where do you find such amazing people? Aw, her poor face. I can't _believe_ somebody would ever want to hurt such a lovely person," Angela had praised the ME for the entire fifteen-minute car ride to the old Rizzoli home. The Rizzoli Matriarch was only silenced when Jane stopped the car and Angela looked out of the passenger window to the house she'd lived in for the last forty years.

"Ma, you wanna know what I loved best about this house?" Frankie leaned forward from the back seat and placed a hand on his mother's shoulder.

"What?" Angela sniffed and asked.

"The family that lived in it," he said before he leaned forward to kiss his mother's cheek.

"Yeah," Jane joined in. "We can be the Rizzoli's anywhere, Ma. It wasn't the house that held us together... it was you."

Angela looked from Jane to Frankie and let a tear slip from her eye while she smiled. "I did such a good job raising my babies," She grinned and she was delighted when Jane let her kiss her on the cheek as Frankie got out to open the door for her.

"It's gonna be fine, Ma, alright?" He asked as he helped her from the vehicle. She patted him on the cheek and nodded before she walked up to the home she'd soon be leaving. She unlocked the front door and turned to wave back to her children who always waited for her to be inside before they drove off.

"So," Frankie started as Jane began to drive toward his apartment, "at least you know Ma already approves of your new girlfriend even if you haven't told her."

"_Oh my God, _does _everyone _know?" Jane glanced at her brother only slightly annoyed that her friends and family were so perceptive.

"You aren't exactly doing the best job hiding it, sis," He smirked over at her.

"Frankie, she calls gays _'those people...'" _Jane started nervously, "How am I gonna tell her? What if she like, disowns me or something? And now she's gonna be _living_ with Maura..." Jane tried not to panic and was taken aback by her brother's laugh.

"_Trust _me, Janie, she won't disown you..." Jane looked sideways at her brother, confused by his statement. He rolled his eyes and decided to elaborate. "She didn't disown me..."

"What do you mean?" Jane thought she knew what he was implying but she wanted to make sure.

"Really gonna make me spell it out, huh?" He rolled his eyes before he continued. "After I got my own place and Tommy got arrested, Ma started to come over to my apartment a lot. Empty nest or whatever, and she used her _emergency key _to let herself in one morning and kind of... found me sleeping in bed with a guy I'd picked up at the bar..." Frankie blushed as he told the story. He wasn't ashamed of his bisexuality, but he wasn't exactly comfortable talking about sex in front of his sister.

"Oh!" Jane exclaimed, surprised that Frankie was so... adventurous. "Why didn't you say anything about it? Liking men, I mean." Jane was slightly offended that Frankie hadn't talked to her about it. She thought she made it clear that he could talk to her about anything.

"I dunno... It's just not something most Catholic Italian families talk about... It's like Maura said, Catholic guilt or whatever... Look, my point is that Ma won't condemn you to hell in her mind, alright? She actually asked me, in front of the guy by the way, what adoption agency we were gonna decide on." Jane laughed and shook her head, not surprised that her mother's reaction had immediately been to think about grandbabies.

"Okay... Thanks, Frankie," Jane smiled over to her brother who nodded. "Hey, did you know Frost was interested in Susie?" She changed the subject. She also didn't exactly enjoy talking about sex in front of her sibling. She noticed Frankie's slight frown as he shook his head. "What, you don't like her?"

"Oh, no it's not that... I think she's great. She's smart and pretty and everything," Frankie stated dejectedly.

"Oh, were you also interested in her?" Jane asked, amused by male competitiveness.

"Uh, no," Frankie stated.

"Are you... jealous of her?" Jane asked more quietly as she pulled to a stop in front of her brother's building. Frankie didn't know if his openness was due to the wine or his trust in his sister but he knew he couldn't keep the truth from her. He undid his seatbelt and smiled sadly with half of his mouth as he shrugged over to her.

"I dunno, I guess," He said and Jane patted him on the shoulder. "He's my best friend, you know?"

"Yeah," Jane nodded and smiled, "_Boy,_ do I know." He chuckled slightly at her.

"Later, Janie," Frankie said as he got out of the vehicle. She waited for him to be inside before she drove off and chuckled at the further proof that Frankie was exactly like her.

* * *

**I promise that the next few chapters will be more action-packed. I've had a few comments that said the readers really enjoyed the crime aspects of this story so far and an equal amount of comments asking me to focus more on the emotional 'outside of work' aspects of the story. I'm going to proceed with both in a way I think feels appropriate, but for the time being, the main focus will be on character development and personal things. I'm really looking forward to exploring the relationships between my faves. 3 **

**As always, let me know what you think! I LOVE hearing from you! **


	17. Chapter 17

**This chapter is a tad longer than the rest but I mostly enjoyed writing it! **

**It gets _steamy..._**

* * *

Maura found Jane in the morgue the next morning once again looking contemplatively down towards a dead woman lying on an autopsy table. This time, however, the Detective wasn't alone.

"Oh, back from vacation I see, Ms. Isles," Pike said, and Jane rolled her eyes. Maura took one look at the state of the morgue and almost fainted at what she saw. Pike had reorganized every surface in sight. Maura hardly wanted to even_ think_ about opening the drawers and cupboards.

"I was not on vacation, _Mr_. Pike, not that it is your business," Maura stated patiently back to the disrespectful man.

"It is _Doctor _Pike, as you well know!" He all but yelled into Maura's face. Jane was about to step in and defend the ME but was interrupted before she could. She quickly realized that her defense was not needed in Maura's morgue; her reigning territory.

"And it is _Doctor _Isles," Maura spoke back just as harshly. "I will use your title when you learn to respect your superior, and until that point, you have not earned the title, nor have you learned how to properly complete an autopsy according to many members of my team. Please excuse yourself from my morgue, Mr. Pike, before I decide that early retirement is appropriate for you."

The elderly man sputtered and removed the purple gloves from his hands. He threw the latex down onto the towel covering the corpse, and Maura's eyes zeroed in on the disrespectful action. She held her tongue as Pike left the room and she moved closer to the autopsy table to remove the gloves and dispose of them properly, looking apologetically into the dead woman's face.

"Damn, Doctor Isles, telling it like it is," Jane grinned over to Maura, "I can't wait to tell Frost and Korsak about that little showdown," the Detective chuckled, but sobered quickly when Maura didn't join in. The ME wasn't even making eye contact. "Maura, what's wrong?" Jane asked, concerned that she'd done something to upset her. Maura opened her mouth to speak, but the ME's cell phone started to ring before any words came out.

"Hello..? _What? No! _Yes… Uh… O-o-okay… Okay, thanks… bye…" Jane stared confusedly at the high-pitched frequency of Maura's voice as she spoke into the receiver. It was clear that Maura was anxious.

"Maura, I'm pretty sure only _dogs _can hear you right now," Jane tried to ease the tension with a joke about Maura's high speaking.

"It was my mother…" Maura spoke and then started to hyperventilate. "Oh my God, what are we going to do?" Maura asked before she continued to breathe erratically.

"Well, first of all, stop doing _that,"_ Jane pointed to the ME's mouth. "Tell me what's happening right now. Why is a phone call with your mother so bad?" Jane grabbed both of Maura's shoulders to steady the smaller woman.

"Vasoconstriction. Hypercapnia." Maura said as she checked her own pulse.

"Okay, please get ahold of yourself, you're alright," Jane tried to steady her.

"Yes," Maura agreed as she started to get ahold of her breathing. "Jane, my mother wants to meet you and she's having an art gala tonight and she wants me to go and to bring you, but you don't have any clothes appropriate for such an event and now I see that I have an autopsy to do which likely means that there's a case and I'm not sure I have time to do all of the things-"

"Maura!" Jane cut her off. "Everything is going to be fine, okay? The case we have is practically solving itself, we just need you to verify some hunches, so don't stress about that, okay?" Jane continued only after Maura nodded her understanding. "_And _I'll have you know that I clean up nice, alright? I _do _own fancy clothes, you know," Jane rolled her eyes and Maura couldn't help the chuckle of disbelief that escaped her lips. The ME pressed her lips together at Jane's offended look.

"Jane, I didn't mean to imply that your clothes aren't… You know what? You can wear whatever you like to my mother's gala." Maura smiled apologetically to Jane who pursed her lips before she nodded her understanding.

"This okay?" Jane opened her arms and looked down at her own work clothes.

"Are you craz-" Maura caught herself. "That's fine, Jane." The ME smiled up at Jane and the Detective grinned down at Maura. The Doctor was clearly stressed out by the thought of Jane meeting her mother, but despite the anxiety she had, she didn't want Jane to change anything about herself. Maura was proud of who Jane was, what she did, and was not at all ashamed to be seen with someone so much 'lower-class' than herself. Jane could easily read all of this in Maura's face and leaned in to give the blonde a kiss. They parted at the sound of the morgue doors opening and Susie Chang walked in and moved to enter the lab with a casual nod to the pair of women.

"I'll see you later Maur," Jane said, "let me know the results, okay?" She pointed at the corpse and left the room. Maura immediately turned to change into her scrubs. She faltered at the state of her office and decided quickly that she'd simply call a decorator to have it remodeled rather than sort out the mess Pike had left behindShe'd been looking for an excuse to update the office anyway. She changed quickly and moved back to the morgue. She approached the body and glanced down at the dead woman on the table below her and froze.

"Are you okay, Maura?" She heard Susie ask from across the room. She sounded muffled and distant.

"Yes, I'm fine," Maura stated. "You can go do your lab work," the ME spoke casually. Susie nodded and left Maura alone in the morgue so that they could both work in peace. The Criminalist knew that Maura liked to work with the dead alone. She'd overheard Maura talking to the corpses during particularly difficult cases. It wasn't until Susie was done her work and re-entered the morgue over an hour later that she realized that Maura had lied about being fine. She found the ME standing in the exact same position she'd left her in, staring down at the tray of autopsy instruments next to the table. Susie called out to Maura but she was ignored. The blonde didn't even move. The ME seemed to be… buffering. Susie quickly ran out of the morgue in search of Jane. The elevator could not move fast enough. She bumped into several people as she ran into the bullpen.

"Detective Jane," Susie called out and Jane laughed at the Criminalist before she read that something was wrong. "You need… to go down… to the morgue… something… is wrong… with Maura…" Susie said in between pants of breath. Jane stood from her desk immediately and took the stairs down to the morgue, not willing to wait for the lift.

* * *

Jane walked into to morgue and sure enough, Maura was standing exactly where she'd been when Jane had left. The ME was staring down at her tray of instruments with one hand slightly reaching up as if she were intending to grab something. But the Doctor didn't move. Jane watched as her favorite person in the world acted like a statue. Jane was reminded of an art piece Maura had shown her of a sculpted crouching woman. Maura had tried to explain the slightly abstract angles and explain how the piece beautifully represented a sense of sadness and stress, but at the time, Jane thought it just looked like a weird triangle and that if she were ever in the same room with something that expensive, her head would explode. Now though, watching Maura, beautiful, confident Maura, struggling to pick up a scalpel, Jane understood the piece completely. The ME was just as much of a physical representation of angst in that moment as the sculpture was. It broke Jane's heart. She approached the smaller woman and pressed herself in front of Maura's view of the medical tools. She took hold of the blonde's shoulders and then tilted Maura's face up by her chin so that they could look at each other.

"It's just a scalpel, Maur," Jane whispered down to her. "It can't do anything to you unless you let it." Jane moved her hand from Maura's chin so that she could caress her cheek. Maura tightly closed her eyes.

"I can't," the Doctor spoke barely above a whisper and it broke Jane's heart. "I'm not afraid that it can hurt me. I'm… scared of what I can do with it," Maura opened her eyes and tears were leaking out of them. She was afraid of what she had done. She was afraid of what it meant. She had taken a life and she could never give it back and it was killing her. Maybe it meant that she was like the Doorman… Like Hoyt.

"Honey," Jane placed her hands on either side of Maura's face, using her thumbs to wipe the heavy tears away. "When you look at a scalpel, you should feel honored by what you can do with it," Maura gasped but Jane pressed on. "What you do with a scalpel, Maura is _help people._ You take the blade and you cut into victims so you can_ help _them. You can speak for the dead." Jane shocked both herself and Maura by pulling on a purple glove and grabbing the small blade. "You speak for the people who can't bring justice for themselves every day, and when you used this to save yourself from Casey Jones, you weren't killing a man, Maura, you were speaking for the dead… and for yourself." Jane's hand shook slightly as she offered the hilt of the blade to Maura.

Maura looked away from Jane's face and down at the medical tool. During all of the cases the two women shared, the one thing Jane never did was willingly talk about the small metal instrument. Maura had noticed Jane's eyes avert from her hand any time it held the small blade, but now, because Maura was afraid of it now too, Jane faced her own fear and took the scalpel into her hand without a thought. The Detective's hand shook only slightly and Maura could see the small bump of her scars through the sheer purple of the medical glove. More tears leaked out of her eyes as she looked back up into Jane's face. The kindness was back in full force. Maura reached up to grasp the hilt of the blade but Jane didn't let go just then.

"Speak for her, Doctor Isles," Jane's eyes bored into hers and she had no choice but to believe every word Jane had uttered to be true. Jane never lied to the woman who could not lie. "Help her, Maura. She needs you." Jane let go of the hilt of the blade and stayed standing beside the smaller woman to make sure that her words had worked.

Maura turned and looked into the face of Jane Doe. _I help the victims. I can speak for the dead. _Maura repeated the words in her head until she found the courage to lift the blade to the woman's chest. She looked over to Jane and noticed that the Detective's eyes were on the scalpel; not in fear, this time, but in conviction. Jane wasn't afraid so neither would Maura be. The Doctor took a deep breath and pressed down into the flesh below her hand and as she cut down the woman's torso, she didn't feel like she was hurting... killing. She felt like she always had; like she could bring meaning to the days the woman had spent roaming the Earth. Maura looked down into the dead woman's face and although she understood that corpses were scientifically just evidence in her field of work, she always viewed the victims like the people they had been before they had died. Each bit of information she gathered from the bodies helped Maura to learn who that person had been in life. Every scrape of a fingernail told the ME the victim's favorite foods and if they were a dog or a cat person, and even if they picked their nose. She learned as she cut into the musculature of the people, how they lived their lives; whether they had liked to jog, if they had a repetitive job, or if they ordered way too much pizza and drank too much beer. Maura met every single person who laid upon her autopsy table, and although she could distance herself from her emotions as she got to know each victim, she still treated their body with the utmost respect. Maura treated the corpses as though they were still a living, breathing patient, worthy of her care. It was the reason why she excelled at what she did. She let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and all of her fears of being like Charles Hoyt escaped the parts of her they'd been clinging to. She was the Queen of the Dead, yes, but never for the reasons people believed. She looked over at Jane and the brunette was smiling proudly down at the Y incision.

For her part, Jane had been determined to make sure that Maura knew that she was _nothing _like Casey or Hoyt. She knew that the only way to help her friend would be to face one of her own fears and she knew that she was willing to do it for Maura, and for herself. They could overcome their fears together in that morgue, and Jane knew that she could not let the opportunity go to waste. If she _knew _that Maura could overcome her fear on a scalpel, then she knew with just as much certainty that she could too. She'd pulled her hands into fists and felt the raised bumps on her palms as she watched Maura use the same tool that created them to help the Jane Doe laying on the table. She pressed down on the old scars and willed the meaning of how Maura used the scalpel to seep into the small bumps; to heal them too. They didn't need to be reminders of what that blade did to her anymore; they could represent what that small, metal tool could do for everyone else. She released a deep breath of her own when Maura was done the Y incision and looked proudly down. They had faced their fear together. The weight that had been pressing down on them lifted and dissipated in the air. Jane looked down into Maura's face and saw that the smaller woman's courage was back. Jane nodded to her and Maura continued with the autopsy. They would help this woman together.

"Ooo, broccoli particulates. Salmon, can't tell if it's farmed or wild-caught. Stomach contents are like someone's grocery bag, it's so revealing," Maura smiled up at Jane's confused face. "This is my favorite part," Maura stated in genuine excitement as she rifled through the stomach contents of the woman on the table. Jane stared disgustedly down at her best friend rifling through the woman's innards, dumbfounded by Maura's enjoyment of autopsies but glad that the ME had found her confidence again.

"_Gosh, _mine too," the Detective stated in sarcastic monotone.

They were back.

* * *

The women closed the case easily before the end of their shift and Maura was especially glad that they'd have time to go shopping before her mother's Gala. Korsak even let them leave early afternoon since they'd done such fine work, and he and Frost were all too happy to cover for Jane when they'd found out that she'd be getting tortured at a fancy art gig that she clearly wasn't interested in.

"So, your mom plans these things months in advance and she chooses the last possible minute to invite you?" Jane asked Maura as the pair of them walked up to a string of Maura's favorite boutiques.

"She's just busy," Maura lamely defended her mother. Jane could see the strange mix of pain and yearning in Maura's eyes and her heart softened. No wonder Maura didn't mind spending time with Jane's family.

"You're stressed, Maur, you really gonna waste this opportunity to go shopping with your favorite detective by being stressed the whole time? Talk to me," Jane stopped walking and led Maura over to a conveniently placed bench.

"Barold is my favorite detective," Maura deadpanned and held a serious face for as long as she could.

"Maura!" Jane scowled, "now is not the time for you to practice joking!" The ME laughed at Jane's reaction before she sobered up again.

"My mother is… hard to get to know," Maura stated after they sat. She was resolutely looking forward instead of at Jane and the Detective knew that she was about to open a proverbial can of worms. She never really minded doing that.

"I'm not asking you to defend her, Maur, you don't need to make excuses for complicated relationships," Jane nudged her lightly with her elbow. "You hardly shy away from talking about anything… why is this different?" Jane reached over and held Maura's hand, causing the ME to look down at their entwined fingers. "You can borrow Ma any time you want," Jane sassed out, "she'd nosy and loud-"

"Warm. Involved," Maura interrupted.

"Well, the grass is always greener," Jane tried to counter but Maura looked up into her face and the disappointment there was almost palpable.

"At least you have grass," Maura muttered. "I always wondered what it might be like to have a mother who cut the crust off my sandwiches… or to have one that might serve peanut butter and fluff for lunch," Maura laughed sadly.

"It's _annoying, _Maur," Jane joked, "She still does it. You should _see _the looks I get when she brings me lunch at work." Maura chuckled and glanced down again. The pain on her face was one of tormented longing that Jane had never seen before. She never wanted to see it again.

"But she brings you lunch," Maura pointed out with a sad smile.

"You think my Ma isn't gonna bring you peanut butter and fluff every opportunity she's got from now on after she saw your face light up when you tried it the first time?" Jane asked sarcastically. "Mark my words, soon you'll be _begging _for her to stop, just like the rest of her kids," Jane squeezed the ME's hand and was delighted to see a genuine smile cross Maura's face. "You ready to torture me now?" Jane asked, indicating to the boutiques.

"Jane," Maura shook her head and chuckled. When Maura said her name like that, Jane's insides seemed to writhe with giddiness. Man, she had it bad. They made their way over to one of the stores and as Jane watched Maura get more and more excited about the clothes she was seeing, the Detective decided that shopping with Maura wasn't so horrible after all. Not if it meant that the ME would be smiling and practically bouncing with excitement as she showed Jane which outfit's she liked and explained how difficult the garments would have been to make. Although the Detective was terrified to even touch any of the articles lest she sully them with her blue-collar grime, Maura's obvious confidence around the highly-priced items made her feel at ease. She was with someone who belonged in 'that world' so she belonged there now too.

"Let me buy you something!" Maura clapped her hands together as a shop attendant brought the many, _many_, outfits Maura had chosen to a changeroom.

"Are you _insane?_" Jane scoffed. "Maura, the cheapest thing in here costs more than my monthly rent bill," Jane chuckled. "Besides, they don't have anything that's really… me."

"You'd look good in anything here," Maura admonished before her look of disbelief turned into a smirk. The ME moved closer to Jane and spoke lowly enough that only the Detective would here. "Or in nothing."

"_Doctor Isles,"_ Jane blushed but put a hand up to her chest in mock surprise.

"This is 'you', I think," Maura ignored Jane's joking demeanor to her flirting and focused on the flushed face reaction. She pulled a black blazer off of one of the racks and held it out to Jane, who looked at the garment apprehensively and immediately reached for the price tag. Maura slapped her hand away. "I said to let _me _buy _you _something."

"Aw, come on," Jane protested, "you know I'll just spill coffee on it or get it stained with burger grease or blood or something. Besides, I didn't do anything to deserve such a-"

"You have done _everything_ to deserve the best of anything you'd like," Maura interrupted and Jane's face softened into an adoring smile. "Jane, you've made my life so much… better. Please at least try it on." Maura pleaded and Jane looked up sideways toward the ceiling trying to calm the smile that was overtaking her face. She knew she would never be able to say no to the ME as long as the question was asked in that particular tone. Jane looked down at the blazer. It looked pretty much like the one she was wearing, in her opinion, but the cut was nicer and the sleeves were a tad thinner and longer. She doubted anyone would even be able to tell that it was quality, so she rolled her eyes and yanked the item from Maura's grasp.

"_Fine,_" She grumbled and Maura smiled up at her. They made their way over to the changeroom and since all of the ME's clothes were already in it waiting to be tried on, Maura got to go first. Jane was next to useless as Maura asked her if she preferred one outfit to the next but the ME didn't get annoyed. Instead, she found it endearing that Jane was so obviously getting flustered by the low necklines of many of the dresses and blouses, and that Jane just claimed that every outfit made her look more beautiful than the last. She ended up deciding on a leopard print dress with a golden blazer to go over the top. On anybody else, the leopard print would look cheap and the golden blazer would look tacky, but the way it looked on Maura was breathtaking.

"How do I look?" Maura asked, spinning on the spot in her heels.

"I'd say you looked like a million bucks, but I guess I should say you look like a million… gold bars?" Jane joked lamely and Maura grinned. The ME stepped closer to Jane and the Detective grinned down at her. Maura noted Jane's dilated pupils and the slight pink hue on her cheeks.

"Thank you, Jane," the ME said before she leaned her head up to press a kiss to the Detective's lips. Jane immediately responded and Maura found that her own heart rate was increasing. "It's your turn."

"For what?" Jane asked in confusion.

"The blazer, try on the blazer," Maura grabbed the item and chuckled at her ability to bring Jane to a one-track mind.

"Right," Jane shook her head and handed the blazer to Maura to hold while she stripped her current one off of herself. Maura shamelessly smiled as she openly assessed Jane's body in the form-fitting red t-shirt she was wearing. "Gimme that," Jane took the item back from Maura and pulled it on. The Detective became nervous at Maura's quiet assessment of her. "Uhh, does it look okay?"

"Stunning," Maura simply stated and Jane grinned down at the shorter woman. Maura ran her hand down one of the lapels and grinned devilishly up at Jane as she stepped back into her personal space. "It looks amazing on you, Jane, but all I really want to do is take it off of you." The Detective's breath caught in her throat as she tugged slightly at the hem of Maura's golden blazer.

"Speak for yourself," Jane husked back. They were dancing dangerously close to a line of impropriety but neither of them really seemed to notice or mind.

"Did you find something to your liking?" They were interrupted by the shop associate.

"Yes, yes I did," Maura said, not breaking eye contact with Jane, who cleared her throat and blushed furiously. "I'll take this and that," Maura gestured down to her own outfit and then pointed to the item she had chosen for Jane.

"Perfect, I'll charge them to the account on file," the associate smiled and walked away.

"What, that's it? You don't have to like, go pay or whatever?" Jane asked in surprise as the sales clerk walked away.

"No, we're free to leave. I'm going to change out of this while you go get the car, and then I'd like you to take me home," Maura looked up at Jane, trying to make it obvious that she meant she wanted Jane to take her home and then take her in her home.

"Really? We've only been to one store, I thought we'd be out until we had to head over to the-"

"Jane," Maura interrupted and then she leaned in to murmur more sultrily into Jane's ear. "Take me home."

Realization dawned on the Detective's face and she stared hungrily down to Maura's lips, licking her own. She blew out a huff of breath and simply nodded, moving out of the store to follow the ME's direction.

* * *

They arrived at Maura's house quickly and Maura undid her own seatbelt, turning to release Jane's as well when the Detective took too long turning the car off. Jane simply chuckled and got out of the car to follow the ME to the house. Jane closed and locked the door behind her and turned to follow Maura further into the house but she was quickly pressed back into the door instead. Maura's hands found Jane's blazer buttons and she continued their kissing from the store earlier. Jane groaned into the kiss and slid her hands down Maura's back and over the slope of her pencil skirt covered ass. The Detective squeezed the muscles in her palms and drew Maura closer to her and Jane groaned at the feeling of Maura's breasts pressed tightly against her own. She bent her legs slightly to bunch up the Doctor's skirt before she pulled the woman's legs around her waist to lift her and carry her into the kitchen and place her onto the counter. Maura's high-heeled ankles crossed behind Jane's back and her hands tangled into the curly mess of hair she'd always loved. Jane pulled herself out of the kiss and moved down to begin nipping and sucking on Maura's neck. One of the Brunette's hands left the ME's backside to start kneading one of Maura's breasts through her shirt.

"Oh God," Maura groaned out at the feelings Jane was awakening in her. They were both wearing far too many clothes. The blonde reached down to try to grasp Jane's belt buckle but the brunette quickly stopped her path.

"Hands above your head, Doctor Isles," Jane murmured the command into her ear and she whimpered as she felt the Detective lead her hands to the cupboard handles on each side of her head. "Don't make me tell you again unless you want me to have to cuff you," Jane joked sultrily and smirked at the quiver that ran through Maura's body and the quick glance the ME made to the cuff's on Jane's kit belt. Jane continued her exploration of the other woman's neck and thoroughly enjoyed the heavy breathing she was eliciting. She decided that she wanted to feel Maura's skin so she began to slowly pull the Doctor's shirt from where it was tucked into her skirt. She wanted to rip the buttons open almost as much as she wanted to continue to tease the ME panting before her. Jane watched Maura's tongue slowly dart out to wet her lips and the ME's pupils had overtaken most of the beautiful green that Jane normally would have seen in her eyes. Jane leaned in as if she were going to continue their kissing but she stopped an inch away from Maura's mouth and simply looked into her heavy-lidded eyes as she slowly unbuttoned the Doctor's shirt. Maura whimpered her complaint but didn't have the words to describe what she wanted anymore. The feeling coursing through her was beyond language. Once all of the buttons were free, Jane roughly pulled the shirt open to expose Maura's lacey black bra. A sigh of aroused disbelief escaped Jane's lips and she began to softly stroke up Maura's sides while she ducked down to start kissing and nipping at the ME's clavicle, slowly making her way down to the full, round breasts before her. Maura moaned as she felt Jane's mouth pull in the top of one of her breasts as her hand palmed the other. A desire stronger than any she'd felt before was building in her and she couldn't decide if she wanted Jane to continue her slow torture or rip all her clothes away to fuck her hard against the cupboards behind her. Another shiver ran up her spine when she realized that she wouldn't be the one to decide.

Jane noticed the front clasp of Maura's bra and had a fleeting thought about worshipping whoever invented the style. Her clever fingers made quick work of the latch and her breathing hitched at the sight before her. Maura slightly pushed out her flushed and heaving chest in hopes that Jane would continue her ministrations, and Jane swallowed hard at the action. Her eyes flickered back up to Maura's face and she nearly gave in to her desires as she saw the unadulterated lust in the green eyes. Jane's hands reached around to grip Maura's behind again and they both shuddered at the sensation of Maura's bare chest pushing into Jane.

"You're so beautiful, Maura," Jane whispered before their lips met once more. Maura moaned and her hips bucked into the pressure of Jane's body, desperate to find any friction she was allowed. She whimpered again as Jane pulled slightly away and began another trail of kisses down to her chest. She gasped at the feeling of Jane's tongue darting out and caressing the hard, pink tips of her chest. One of her breasts was drawn into Jane's mouth and she groaned at the feeling of warmth. She felt the Detective bite down just enough to borderline on painful before she soothed Maura's nipple with her tongue. Jane blew on the wetness she'd just created and watched in awe as the ME's nipples tightened.

"Jane," Maura begged, and Jane could never say no to a plea like that, so her hands left Maura's ass and slowly made their way along the outside of Maura's thighs until she reached the ME's knees. Jane straightened up to capture Maura's swollen lips in another kiss as she moved her hands to the Doctor's inner thighs and slowly dragged her hands upward until she found what felt like more lace at the apex of the blonde's legs. Jane gripped the material and pulled down, removing herself from Maura's legs just long enough to remove the lacey black panties and see that they were soaked. Jane moved back to her previous position and roughly entwined one of her hands in Maura's hair while the other traced another line up her inner thigh. She marveled at the moisture she found and smiled as Maura moaned into their kiss, breaking it.

"You're so wet," Jane hissed into Maura's ear before she pulled an earlobe into her mouth, coated the tips of two of her fingers and played with the hard bundle of nerves she discovered above Maura's wet heat. Maura's hips bucked and she gasped, clinging tighter to the handles on either side of her head. This was torture the likes of which she'd never known and she didn't want it to stop, but the magnitude of the pressure building in her was more intense than she'd experienced before and she wasn't sure how much longer she could last.

"Please, Jane," She whimpered, and the Detective knew exactly what Maura wanted but didn't want to give in to the Doctor that easily. Jane stopped kissing Maura's neck and husked into her ear.

"Tell me what you need me to do, Maura, I want to hear you beg for it," Jane stopped all movement as she waited for Maura to reply. The ME gasped and whimpered and shook before her. Maura's eyes shot open and Jane couldn't see any more green. Between short pants, Maura answered Jane's demand.

"Please, Jane. Just fuck me, I- I want you to fuck me," and Maura groaned loudly as Jane immediately thrust two fingers into her body, palming a breast with her other hand and continuing her kissing of Maura's neck. Maura's head fell back into the cupboard behind her and she did nothing to try to stifle the moans that were escaping her. Jane used her hips to guide her hand repeatedly into the ME and she curled her fingers every time she backed her hips away. She began to use her thumb to hit Maura's clit every time her fingers had gotten as far as they could and she thoroughly enjoyed the sounds she was pulling from the usually pristine, in-control Doctor that she knew. Jane could feel her own wetness soaking through her underwear at the vision before her. She thought she might come undone when Maura spoke.

"Oh God, Jane. Y-yes!" Maura tried to open her eyes but they immediately rolled back into her head. Jane felt the Doctor's inner walls begin to flex and pull at her fingers and she quickly decided that she loved the feeling. Jane wanted nothing more than to please Maura better than she'd ever experienced before, so she increased the pace of her hips and spoke to Maura again; having learned quickly what her voice could do.

"Tell me how much you like how I fuck you," She murmured lowly into Maura's ear and the Doctor cried out. Jane moved her free hand back around to Maura's ass for more leverage so she could get rougher with her thrusts. Through Maura's panting and moans, she listened for an answer. The usually eloquent Doctor was reduced to monosyllabic utterances and cusses.

"S-so good, Jane," She breathed out in between her moans. "You f-fuck me b-better than -_Oh God_\- better than anybody. P-please don't stop. _Fuck_," Maura felt her first orgasm overtake her body and her shuddering paused before coming back full tilt. _"Yes,_ Jane!" Were the last words Maura could utter before Jane felt the Doctor's walls tightening around her two fingers. She kept thrusting into Maura fast and hard as the blonde rode out the waves of pleasure Jane was causing, and Jane withdrew her hand only for a moment so she could add a third finger to immediately bring Maura into a second release. The Doctor forgot she had been told to keep her hands off of the Detective, so she let go of the handles and wrapped her arms around Jane's shoulders and entwined her fingers into the Detective's hair. Being fully pressed into Jane's muscular, thrusting body was enough for Maura to start feeling her next orgasm start to build and she held onto Jane's hair tightly, trying to pull the Detective impossibly closer with her ankles pressed into Jane's back.

Jane didn't care that Maura forgot the instruction because the sound of the Doctor's moans in her ear and the feeling of Maura's full breasts heaving into her own chest was enough to make Jane feel as if she herself was about to come undone. The ME once more cried out in release before Maura, completely spent, slumped forward into Jane.

Jane recovered quickly and tried to pull herself away from the ME to make sure the other woman was okay, but the dead-weight and limpness of Maura's body made the maneuver impossible. Jane eased her fingers out of Maura's center and lifted the ME up off of the counter by her backside once again. Maura whimpered slightly and held onto Jane as best she could, but the boneless feeling in her body and the intensity of her releases made her rather useless as Jane walked them over to the couch. The Detective laid the ME lovingly down and moved to get the blanket before she settled herself back in between Maura's legs and rested her full weight on Maura's spent form, smirking at the small groan that escaped the ME's lips. Jane covered them both before the sweat on the doctor's body could cool, and she closed her eyes to the sound of Maura's heartbeat.

Jane drew slow circles on Maura's upper chest as she waited for the ME to come back down from the high she was experiencing. Jane felt awestruck at what she'd just accomplished and relished in the knowledge that Maura thought she was worthy of experiencing such an intimate act with her. She smiled smugly up at Maura when she felt the Doctor wrap her arms around Jane's waist. Maura let out a long hum of contentment at the feeling of being so utterly satiated and having the weight of Jane's lithe form pressed on top of her. The ME slid her hands up from Jane's hips to trail up her back and start to grab at the Detective's form-fitting blazer. She started to tug with more and more urgency and her intent became clear to Jane.

"Maura, you don't have to-"

"I want to," Maura interrupted, withdrawing her hangs to push Jane up, "dear God, I want to," the ME helped Jane remove the garment and then her t-shirt. Her quick fingers once again started to undo Jane's belt buckle and she was glad that the Detective made no moves to stop her this time. "Take these off," Maura ordered impatiently, tugging at Jane's trousers and underwear. Jane stood long enough to remove the articles as she watched Maura unzip her wrinkled skirt and shimmy out of it. Jane moved to straddle Maura's hips as the Doctor tossed her skirt carelessly over the back of the couch. The Detective started to push Maura's blouse and bra off of her shoulders as the ME reached around to unhook Jane's bra. They threw off the last pieces of clothing that were separating them before they wrapped their arms around each other and urgently started to kiss one another again. Maura bit at Jane's bottom lip and the Detective growled into the kiss. Maura's hands were on a journey of discovery and she couldn't feel enough of Jane's hot skin. She traced pathways across the expanse of Jane's back and dug her nails in slightly when Jane began to pull at her hair. Jane hissed at the slight pain and arched her back into the ME and Maura relished in the contact. She placed her hands once more on Jane's hips and broke their kiss to fervently kiss and bite down Jane's neck and chest before pulling one of the brunette's breasts into her mouth. Jane tossed her head back at the contact and gripped Maura's hair tighter. Maura moved her hands to Jane's core and started massaging in a rhythm that matched the urgency of their kisses. Jane ground her body down into the friction and Maura delighted in the growl of a moan that escaped Jane's lips. She kept massaging Jane's clit with the fingers of one hand and slipped two fingers inside of the detective with her other hand while she continued to explore Jane's chest with her mouth.

"Oh God, Maura," Jane voiced in a hoarse whisper before she began to ride the fingers that were expertly working inside of her. Maura leaned back to focus on what she was doing at Jane's core and was awestruck at the vision of the Detective straddled across her thighs grinding into her hands wantonly. Maura couldn't help but release a slight moan of her own as her eyes ate up Jane's moving body. She admired Jane's abs working to keep her hips moving to match the pace Maura was setting. She gazed longing at Jane's breasts which were teasingly moving in front of her face. Jane moved one of her hands to cup Maura's cheek and the ME moved her face to kiss the Detective's palm before she smelled herself on Jane's fingers. She darted her tongue out to draw one of the brunette's fingers into her mouth and sucked before she looked up into Jane's face. "Jesus," the Detective groaned at the sight before her and the feeling that Maura was building within her. When the ME pulled her finger into her mouth Jane felt her first orgasm start to overtake her and she let her head fall back as she rode out the waves of pleasure the Doctor was giving her. "M-Maura, _Jesus,"_ Jane said as she removed her fingers from Maura's mouth to capture the ME's lips in a searing kiss. She tasted the remnants of Maura's sex in their kiss and moaned, feeling a second orgasm start to build at the thought of how fucking hot and dirty the sex they were having was.

The ME felt Jane's second orgasm building and decided she wanted to feel it with her mouth. Jane grumbled when Maura removed her hands completely from her body and stared confusedly when Maura pushed back her shoulders. Jane watched Maura disentangle her legs from underneath Jane and groaned as she realized what Maura was intending to do. Maura settled herself back down in between Jane's spread legs and let her tongue flick out over Jane's now highly sensitive bundle of nerves. She sucked Jane's clit into her mouth and alternated between dragging her tongue across Jane's clit and probing into the brunette with it; tasting how aroused the Detective was. She formed a seal with her mouth and thrust her finger's back into Jane to reset the pace she'd previously been relishing in and moaned as she felt Jane begin to tense. Jane's nails started to scrape slightly at Maura's skull and it only served to make the ME double her efforts. She wanted to hear Jane come as much as she wanted to feel it with her mouth. She was not disappointed. Jane's body tensed beneath her and she glanced up to see Jane's eyes roll back into her head, hear the low moan of approval before the Detective's body began to writhe. She applied more pressure to the spongy tissue of Jane's front inner wall as she lapped at her with her tongue. She relished in the sounds she was causing and was relentless in her pursuit to make Jane's orgasm as long and as intense as she possibly could. With a final moan, Jane arched her back and then slumped back down into the couch beneath her, and Maura slowed her ministrations before she eased her hands and mouth away from Jane's core. She kissed her way back up Jane's body and was delighted when Jane reached up to pull her into a kiss. They lay together breathing heavily on the couch until their heart rates started to return to normal. They occasionally kissed, slowly and appreciatively, completely different from the fervent kisses they'd shared during their activities. They gazed lovingly at each other in between kissed and Jane stroked Maura's back in adoration.

"We shoulda done that a _long _time ago," Jane finally murmured down to an amused looking Maura.

"Mmm, maybe, but then the build-up of sexual tension wouldn't have led to-"

"Me fucking you in your kitchen?" Jane snarked with a smirk and an arched brow. Maura grinned and nodded before she kissed Jane soundly. "You want me to do it again?" Jane asked huskily.

"God, yes," Maura confirmed, "but not right now. We'll be late," Maura leaned in to quickly kiss Jane before she tried to get up, only to be held in place. "Jane," Maura complained, giggling.

"I don't wanna go," Jane petulantly complained, "I don't wanna move," she pouted adorably and Maura kissed her bottom lip.

"If you get up now I'll let you help me shower," Maura whispered into Jane's ear and the detective had stood them both up almost quicker than Maura could process before they were moving quickly toward the stairs. Maura squealed as Jane poked her sides to urge her to move faster.

* * *

The pair of women walked into a grand hall and moved to walk into Maura's mother's art gala but they were stopped by a huffy man standing at a pedestal. He looked over Jane's cheap boots and slacks and eyed her fancy new blazer in suspicion. He literally turned his nose up at her outfit and didn't even look her in the eye as he spoke.

"I'm sorry, this is a private gathering," he waved them off.

"Mhmm, this is Doctor Maura Isles, she'd the artist's daughter," Jane pointed to Maura and the man glanced quickly to the ME, clearly assessing that she belonged there before his eyes traveled back to Jane's mostly cheap clothes.

"And you are?" He asked impolitely.

"She's my date," Maura smiled at the man, graceful as ever, no hint of shame on her face. The man looked between the two of them and Jane rolled her eyes.

"Yes. Well," He perused the papers he was holding in his hands and grinned victoriously at Jane before he continued to speak. "Yeah, I don't see you on the list."

"Do you see me now? Detective Jane Rizzoli, Boston Homicide." Jane unclipped her badge from her belt, glad that she'd gotten into the habit of taking it with her everywhere and was only slightly annoyed that she couldn't put her other hand on her hip to flash her gun threateningly; she'd left that at home. Well, at Maura's.

"Uh, yeah" the rude man stammered, "go ahead," He stepped to the side and waved them gracefully into the room, finally acting as though both women deserved the respect that they did.

"Really? She couldn't even be bothered to put you on the list?" Jane scoffed at the notion that Maura wasn't her mother's main priority.

"She's really busy, I'm sure she tried," Maura automatically excused her mother's actions. Jane could read easily into the dynamic that the two women shared, and her hunch was only further proven as a pristine looking, tuxedo-clad woman approached them with a wide smile.

"Hello, darling!" She spoke in an English accent. "So glad you could make it!" She leaned in to kiss Maura on either cheek and Jane had to keep herself from rolling her eyes at the audacity of the older woman. As if she'd treated Maura with such disrespect and then acted as if everything was fine. Jane wanted to lay into her.

"Sorry we had to crash your gala, your daughter wasn't on the list," Jane spoke as the women separated and she was surprised to see that no shame at all crossed Maura's mother's face.

"Oh, sorry," She waved off, and Jane was angered further when Maura didn't defend herself. Instead, she let her mother plow forward in talking, stating a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about her plans with her art shows and lectures that she'd be hosting.

"Mhmm, that's _so _great that you found time in your busy schedule to come to Boston and visit your daughter, or were you just here to show off your art installation?" Jane interrupted the speel and Maura looked shocked only for a moment before she smiled over at Jane, glad that the Detective wasn't the kind of person to let anybody steamroll over her. Constance faltered for only a moment before she smiled politely to Maura.

"It's always a pleasure to see you, darling," She said, and Jane had to fight a groan as Maura beamed at the compliment that was clearly just a change of topic.

"Would you like to stay in my guest house? I've had it prepared," she smiled at her mother and tried not to sound too hopeful.

"No, darling, the gallery organized for me to stay at the Ritz, I've already checked in," Jane looked at Maura and saw the clear disappointment of her face that seemed to be unrecognizable as sadness to Constance.

"I'm Jane, by the way," she offered a hand out to Constance who took it with surprising strength.

"Lovely to meet you," She spoke in feigned politeness, "Constance Isles," Jane looked over to Maura and saw the unease in her features. This would not do. She would have to rectify this situation so that Maura's face never looked like that again.

"Maura, would you mind getting us something to drink?" Jane asked pointed over to the bar. "I'd _love_ to get to know your mother better," Jane smiled and Maura looked at her in alarm before she regained control over her features and eased back into the polite smile she was taught to wear at such functions. Jane felt only slightly guilty for taking advantage of the fact that she knew Maura would think it impolite to refuse but figured that it was necessary for the end result.

"Um…" Maura faltered only slightly, "sure, excuse me," the blonde smiled at the pair of women before she retreated with a warning look to Jane that was not lost on Constance. She'd seen that look cross many wives' faces as they warned their spouses silently not to do anything stupid, but she'd never seen that particular glare from her daughter. Toward another woman, no less.

"So nice of you to come," Constance said in her easy politeness, "I suppose if you'd like to get to know me, as you say, then you'd be best to look at my art," Constance gestured across the room and Jane followed her hand with her eyes, looking at a huge bulge of plastic water bottles hanging from the ceiling.

"Uhh, nice… hanging water bottles," Jane turned to fully look at the installation. "If it's supposed to guilt me into never buying water again, it's working," Jane snarked and was surprised to hear Constance chuckle at her assessment.

"I can see why Maura likes you," she began, "you're very direct. It's kind of refreshing," Constance smiled at her.

"Compliments won't make me any less protective of my best friend," Jane crossed her arms and saw Constance's air of professionalism and grace begin to falter.

"Is there something you'd like to say to me?" She asked. Neither woman was the kind of person to back down from a challenging conversation.

"Yeah, there is," Jane grumbled. "I don't like seeing my best friend have her feelings hurt," she dropped her hands to her hips and stared down into Constance's face, not threateningly, but not exactly politely either. Her resolve softened only slightly at the clear surprise that crossed the older woman's face.

"You think _I _hurt her feelings? She's… a grown woman," Constance stated in disbelief.

"Yeah, she's a grown woman but I get the impression that you've always been like this," Jane stated accusingly.

"Like what, exactly?" Constance asked as she stuck her chin proudly up, not used to anybody speaking to her so plainly.

"Too busy for her. You waited until the day before to invite her to this thing and you couldn't even be bothered to put her on the list? If I hadn't flashed this at your guy back there she'd have had to go home," Jane lifted her badge up once again before she clipped it back onto her belt. "She invited you to stay with her… she obviously wants to spend time with you but instead, you have to stay at some snazzy hotel. Did you even think about how that might make her think of herself? That says you don't think of her house, or of her, as good enough for you. The fact that you can't read all of that says to me that you haven't ever put in any effort to take care of her feelings, so yeah, I do think you've hurt them... You're treating her like a last thought when she deserves to be treated as a priority."

"She… She must know how proud I am of her? How much I love her?" Constance asked almost pleadingly to Jane.

"Not really the signals you're sending," Jane scoffed.

"I was," Constance began and Jane's hard resolve turned immediately into one of care as she heard the woman's voice crack and saw the tears welling in the older woman's eyes. Constance cleared her throat before she could continue. "I was never any good at being a mother. I couldn't exactly ask an infant what she needed from me to feel loved and she… never indicated how I might improve, not that it's her fault, I just… I missed it. I missed whatever part of womanhood where one learns how to be mothering and I wish every day that it had been different but I…" Constance inhaled deeply and blinked her tears away, looking at Jane as if imploring the Detective to understand.

"I think you should just tell her _that_." Jane spoke softly, "exactly that." They were interrupted by the rude man from earlier saying that Constance had to give a speech about her installation. She smiled politely to Jane and glanced over to where Maura was waiting at the bar before she excused herself. Jane rolled her eyes and met up with Maura before the ME could order unnecessary drinks.

"Don't bother, she's off to do a speech or whatever," Jane said as she pulled Maura from the line by her elbow.

"Oh," Maura looked down to try to hide her disappointment, but Jane could see it as clear as day.

"You wanna get out of here and go help my Ma sort through all the junk in my old house?" She asked.

"I would like that," Maura smiled sadly over to Jane, and the Detective kissed the side of her head before she exaggeratedly bowed down and gestured to the exit with one of her hands, the other at the small of Maura's back. The ME laughed at Jane's usual antics and slightly curtsied in response to Jane's humor. She loved that Jane could ease almost any situation from one of raw emotions into one of light fun. She adored that Jane wasn't embarrassed by making a slight fool out of herself to bring fun to any situation, no matter where they were or who was around. Maura leaned into Jane as the Detective led her out of the building and Constance watched the pair of women leave from the podium she'd chosen over her daughter.

* * *

Jane drove them back to Maura's house and told the ME to go change into crappy work clothes so that nothing would get ruined at her mother's house. Jane herself change into sweatpants and a tank top. She rolled her eyes as she heard heels clicking down the stairs.

"Maura, I _said _to change into work… clothes…" Jane stammered as Maura descended the stairs in tight black skinny jeans, black high heels, and a red leather jacket and a white-spotted, black tank top underneath.

"These are my work clothes," Maura said as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "What?" She asked at Jane's look of disbelief. "You don't like?" Maura looked down to try to find something wrong with her outfit.

"Oh, I like," Jane admitted and she stepped closer to Maura, grabbing the smaller woman's waist and pulling her into a kiss.

"I thought we were going to your mother's," Maura murmured.

"And _just like that_ my mood is gone," Jane joked.

"Just when I started to think about your exquisite long bones," Maura pouted.

"My _bones?_ Ew, Maura, what the hell?" Jane grimaced, further put off by Maura.

"Mhmm, _femur, tibia,"_ Maura murmured sultrily into Jane's ear, entertained by the reaction she was getting.

"Wow, I've _never _been so aroused," Jane sassed. "Come on, let's go," Jane rolled her eyes and grabbed her coat. "You can enjoy lookin' at my _bones _while we clean out my old room," Jane joked, and Maura followed her out into the car.

* * *

"Janie! Maura! What are you doing here?" Angela asked as she flung her door open.

"We, uh, we thought you might want some help going through some of my old stuff," Jane said, at her mother's surprise. "That ok, Ma?"

"Of course!" Angela all but shouted and she grabbed Maura's wrist to pull the ME into the house. "I was just going to call you to see if you could go through your room! Did Frankie tell you I was gonna call?" Angela asked as she led the women into the house.

"No, lucky guess I suppose," Jane chuckled.

"We came from my mother's art gala," Maura offered with a polite smile.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Angela said, "Frankie said that it started at four, it's barely five, what are you girls doing here?"

"They hung plastic water bottles from the ceiling and then all the hoity-toity, classy gala goers applauded and we left," Jane shrugged, "you want our help or not, Ma?" Jane cut off any further questioning from her mother for Maura's sake and Angela put her hands up in surrender.

"Alright, fine, you two go on up, I'll bring you something to eat," Angela said. The elder Rizzoli kissed Maura's cheek, glad to see that the bruising was gone.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Jane asked with a pout.

"You're the perfect daughter," Angela said, kissing Jane on the cheek as well, "Now get going, your room is a mess!"

"Well _that _didn't last long," Jane commented on her mother's complete one-eighty and Maura laughed.

"Wow," was all Maura could say as she walked into Jane's old bedroom. It was the strangest mix of masculine and feminine. There was a pink canopy bed in the corner, but the walls were plastered with Red Sox paraphernalia. Maura glanced into the open closet and saw a skateboard lying on the ground next to a baseball mitt and a hockey stick. There was a ballet tutu hanging up with some old clothes and many science books littering the shelves above the clothing rack. There was a picture of Jane and Frankie as children with their arms around each other, and another little boy with Angela's green eyes standing in front of them. Jane's hand was ruffling his hair as they all smiled into the camera. Maura took a mental note to ask about the boy at a later time. "Wow," Maura repeated again.

"Disgusting, isn't it?" Jane asked in trepidation, starring with loathing toward the pink canopy.

"I thought you said you loved that bed!" Angela walked in holding a plate full of peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, kicking two empty boxes into the room.

"_No, _I said that I wanted _bunk beds _because I wanted to build a fort, Ma, and I didn't want to hurt your feelings when you came back with this monstrosity," Jane corrected her mother and Angela rolled her eyes, causing Maura to laugh.

"See if I ever get _you _anything for your birthday again," Angela sassed.

"Now _there's _a gift!" Jane joked, grabbing the boxes. "This for keep and throw?" Jane asked, indicating to the boxes.

"Yeah, I was gonna do a yard sale with all the stuff you don't want to keep," Angela explained.

"Well then we really only need one box, I don't want any of my old junk," Jane said as she glanced around her old room.

"Fine," Angela said in offense as she placed the tray of sandwiches down on Jane's old dresser. "I want you to know, missy, that I got stretch marks from you." Angela turned from the room and huffed as she walked out. Jane rolled her eyes and Maura looked at her blamingly.

"What?" Jane asked, "Oh, she'll be fine, we'll invite her out for a couple of drinks later and she'll be right back to normal."

"You should be nicer to your mother," Maura admonished.

"I'm always nice," Jane claimed in mock offense, "Alright, I'll tell her I'm sorry."

Maura had fun helping Jane sort through all of her old things. She smiled down at Jane's yearbook photos and wasn't surprised to see on Jane's old report cards that she'd been a straight-A student.

"Hey, Jane," Maura looked up to see Jane trying to fit her hand into the child-sized baseball mitt. "You were a nerd."

"I was _not,_" Jane scoffed and Maura laughed. "_You're _a nerd!" Jane threw the glove in the box and poked Maura in the ribs.

"Yes, and it takes one to know one," Maura chuckled, holding up Jane's report cards.

"I got good grades, that doesn't mean I was a nerd. I was… sporty." Jane nodded in agreement with her own assessment, and Maura laughed.

"Jane, I was sporty, but that didn't make me any less of a nerd."

"Fencing is _not _a sport, Maura,"

"Sure, and having AP science textbooks _doesn't _make you a nerd," Maura said, pointedly glancing into Jane's closet again.

"Are you trying to use sarcasm?" Jane snarked.

"That depends on if it worked," Maura responded.

"It didn't and you need to apologize for calling me a nerd," Jane pointed to Maura and the ME shook her head. "Take it back, Maura or things_ will_ get serious," Jane warned. Maura was interested in just _how _things might get serious, so she simply grinned mischievously and shook her head in the negative once more. "Take it back!" Jane shouted before she started to tickle Maura's sides relentlessly. The ME tried to step back out of Jane's reach, but she toppled over a pile of items and fell onto Jane's old bed. The Detective continued her assault and Maura shrieked in laughter, refusing to give in to Jane's request.

"Jane!" Maura squealed between bouts of laughter. "I can't lie, Jane, so I can't take it back!"

"How _dare you!" _Jane shouted and moved to straddle Maura's middle to continue her torture.

Angela listened to the shrieking laughter coming from upstairs and smiled. She was glad that Jane had found somebody she was comfortable with. Angela was surprised that Jane had brought Maura to help clean out her old room; that room was evidence of every person Jane had ever been, and the Detective would have been incredibly protective over that space had anybody else tried to enter it. But here Jane was, willingly inviting the Doctor into the room, welcoming the ME to see every single thing that made Jane who she was. She made her way back up the stairs sometime later and found Jane and Maura sitting cross-legged on the floor, each on one side of a chessboard.

"Knight to E3," Maura muttered before moving a piece.

"Rookie mistake, Isles," Jane admonished cockily. "Speaking of rookie…" She muttered before moving her rook.

"I'm very intrigued by the assertiveness of you play," Maura uttered in a voice that might have made Angela blush if she wasn't too busy hoping that the two women were dating.

"Just giving what I'm getting," Jane played it cool. Maura glanced down at the board and made her next move quickly. She leaned forward, both women were unaware of Angela's presence. Jane grinned across at Maura before she looked down at the board to assess the damage. Jane smirked up at Maura before she made her own move. "Checkmate." Maura looked down at the board in elated surprise. She'd been beaten only once before at chess, by her father when she was six years old and only beginning to learn.

"You have a beautiful mind," Maura smiled over at Jane who continued smirking.

"I like to think she gets that from me," Angela interrupted from the doorway and both women jumped.

"Jeez, Ma!" Jane scolded, "when have you ever played chess?"

"I could play chess!" Angela shot back.

"Yeah but you _shouldn't,_" Jane snarked, and then glanced at Maura's accusatory glare. "Hey, Ma, we're done here, do you wanna come to get a couple of drinks with us?"

"Is that your way of apologizing for being such a grouch?" Angela asked her daughter.

"Yeah, that and I'm dying for some greasy food," Jane said as she stood up, offering a hand down to help Maura stand up. The ME slipped back into her heels as she held onto Jane's steadying hand.

"I'd love for you to join us," Maura smiled over to Angela and the Rizzoli matriarch immediately softened.

"Like I could say no to that," Angela grinned and the women made their way to the Dirty Robber.

* * *

The three women sat in a booth at the Dirty Robber. Maura had ordered a rather large glass of white wine while Jane and Angela chose beer and some fruity cocktail respectively.

"So, are you gonna help me with the yard sale, or should I plan to do _that _without your help too?" Angela accused.

"Ah, come on, Ma, of course, I'm gonna help. Will you drop it with the guilt-tripping? I already said I was sorry like a hundred times. We can do it after it's _actually _spring, it's supposed to be really warm next month so all the snow should be melted, I'll get Frankie to help too," Jane tried to calm her mother.

"Oh, and am I just going to pick a random street of Boston to showcase all of our old things?" Angela asked.

"You want to have it at my house, don't you?" Jane slumped forward in her seat.

"My mother's here. She told me she was going to Paris right after her show," Maura interrupted in confusion as she glanced at her elegantly dressed mother from across the bar.

"Huh, would you look at that," Jane turned to eye the woman suspiciously and then she shrugged. "I guess she wanted to say goodbye before she left," the Detective lifted an eyebrow and grinned slightly at Maura, who smiled in confusion back over to Jane.

"May I join you?" Maura was surprised to hear her mother ask. Constance would usually just claim ownership over every domain.

"Of course," Maura stood to greet her mother, "what a lovely surprise," the ME said before she kissed her mother on either cheek.

"Somebody talked some sense into me," Constance claimed, "I… I decided not to leave before I saw you at least one more time," she said softly to Maura, who smiled widely.

"Oh, um, sit!" Maura fumbled over her words and gestured to the booth that she'd been sharing with Jane and Angela. It was absolutely covered in the shells of the nuts they'd been eating. Jane read the slight panic on both of the women's faces and she chuckled.

"Here," the Detective offered the seat beside herself before she used her hands to push the empty shells to the floor of the bar. "Guess we know where Maura gets it," the Detective joked and Constance laughed and waved off her effort.

"No, don't worry, I'm not that fussy," she claimed, and Maura laughed at the sight of her mother sitting in a dingy cop bar next to a surly, cranky detective and across from Angela Rizzoli; a loud, proud Italian mother who didn't take any disrespect from anybody. She was both elated and slightly nauseous at having these people together.

"Here you go," Angela said, passing Constance a cloth napkin. "I'm Angela, Janie's mother, I see where Maura gets her taste in fashion from! Your daughter is lovely!" Angela gushed slightly from her seat next to Maura, causing the ME to smile and blush.

"Yes, I'm quite proud of her," Constance said as she looked toward her daughter to be sure that Maura knew that she'd meant it. "And Jane here has made quite the impression on me as well," Constance smiled amusedly toward Angela who pursed her lips at her own daughter.

"Jane, what did you do?" She asked accusingly.

"What? Ma!" Jane defended herself, "I didn't do anything!"

"Oh, I find _that _hard to believe," Angela chastised and Maura secretly agreed. She had no idea what Jane had said to Constance after she'd gone to get drinks.

"No, no, Angela, Jane has proven to be the only one of Maura's dates that I've ever actually liked," Constance chuckled and then noted the loaded glance that the two younger women shared. Jane cleared her throat and spoke to change the subject before they could continue to tread down such a dangerous topic.

"So, do you like _greasy _hamburgers?" Jane asked Constance, effectively distracting everyone from the last sentence the other woman had uttered.

"Oh wow, it's been years since I've had one, I would _love _a hamburger…" Constance trailed off as her eyes landed on the menu across the room. "Ooo, and a chocolate milkshake!"

"M-mother," Maura choked out her amused surprise and her mother shrugged from across the table.

"You know how the old saying goes dear, 'when in Rome,'" Constance recited professionally and Jane laughed.

"Yeah, well here's not quite Rome, but the burgers are really good, _especially_ after the health department shut it down," Jane said casually and Angela kicked her under the table. "Ow!"

"Health department?" Constance panicked and looked down at their mess of a table.

"Mom, it's a joke," Maura explained, "she likes to kid," the ME glanced warningly at Jane but Constance just laughed.

"Lovely," Constance stated.

"Yeah, if you don't have to deal with it every day," Angela sassed her daughter from across the table.

"Pfft, see if I help you clean your house again," Jane snarked back. "I thought I was perfect."

"Janie, most of it is _your stuff!_" Angela countered and the Isles' women laughed at the odd dynamic the Rizzoli women shared.

"What about you, Maur," Jane tossed a menu over to the ME, "you gonna go with your usual rabbit food, or visit Rome with the rest of us?" Jane teased and stuck out her tongue, earning a scowl from the Doctor.

"Come now, dear, live a little," Constance stated amusedly from across the table and Maura grinned down at the menu.

"I have wondered about the nachos," she admitted causing the rest of the table to laugh.

"Great, I'll split it with you," Jane offered.

The rest of the evening was spent in easy conversation, and Maura found that her mother had an actual sense of humor. She was glad to see that although the Rizzoli women were their opposites in essentially every way, that they all got along well. She was glad to see that although Constance and Jane's first meeting had been stilted and awkward, the two women seemed to have found some sort of common ground to build a foundation on. From Constance's occasional searching glances to Jane, and by the pleased, knowing smiles that the Detective would give to Maura, the ME surmised that the common interest must be herself.

* * *

**I love how many complex women there are in this show. They're all so fun to analyze. It's nice to see that for every difference these women have, none of them lose respect over their differences.**

**As always, PLEASE review! I love to read them! It's incredibly helpful. :) **

**Spoiler alert: there are a lot of emotional scenes coming up, but not necessarily bad emotional. B) **


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm excited to share this cuteness with you! Shoutout to all my regular reviewers! I cannot express how much it means to me that you share your opinions with me and I love y'all for it! 3 **

* * *

Spring met Boston that year in a fury of rain and hail. Angela Rizzoli had been evicted and most of her belongings and yard sale items were locked up in some kind of warehouse where Maura's family 'stored some valuable items.' Angela had been too afraid to ask what that meant, so she simply thanked the lovely Doctor for her seemingly endless hospitality. Maura had even had workers come and move the items so Angela wasn't even sure where her stuff _was._ She tried not to laugh when she thought about all of her most valuable items; family photos and keepsakes from vacations, sitting next to priceless art, or a jet or… straight up just a bunch of piles of money. Angela couldn't decide which notion was more amusing, and she also couldn't decide whose stuff was truly more valuable.

As Maura had helped Angela move into the guest house, the Rizzoli Matriarch had noticed many things about the strange woman who so easily captured every Rizzoli heart. She spoke about family adventures as she showed photos to Maura, who would eye the images with a strange longing. After having met Constance Isles, Angela learned that Maura hadn't had much experience being mothered, so she adopted Maura in her usual rounds of bringing food for Jane and Frankie, and added a slightly maternal aspect to her friendship with the ME.

Angela had always been the 'go-to' mother of the neighborhood. While the Rizzoli children were growing up there was almost always a couple of extra kids sitting at the Rizzoli dinner table, and Angela seemed to constantly have a plate of freshly baked cookies. The children of the neighborhood called her Mama Rizzoli, and any newcomer quickly learned to follow suit. Angela always had extra snacks or bandages and a seemingly endless supply of hugs and love to give to any child she thought might need it. Angela could never turn away a child in need, and although she saw Maura as a well-accomplished, smart, grown woman, she could still see a little girl behind the ME's eyes that longed for a family like Jane's. It was second nature and automatic for Angela and Maura's relationship to turn into an odd mix of friendly and familial. They both seemed to like the arrangement though, and enjoyed each other's company greatly, whether Jane was around or not.

Angela loved Maura's guest house but felt terrible for not being able to repay the ME financially, despite the Doctor's many protests that their living situation was welcomed and therefore, needless to exchange funds. Angela, however, tried to pay her back by keeping the house stocked with necessities and by making sure there was at least one well-cooked meal in the fridge.

Maura and Angela came to the agreement that if Maura's back porch light was on, then Angela should avoid the house, or knock if it was an emergency. The Rizzoli Matriarch noticed that the light was often turned on after Family Sunday dinner, while Jane's car was parked in the driveway at the front of the ME's home and all other guests had left for the evening. In fact, the only time that light was _ever _on was if Jane's car was parked in the driveway. If the two women were indeed dating, then they weren't exactly being discreet.

Angela felt slightly insulted that her daughter, hell, her _daughters _would keep their possible relationship hidden from her. It was a battle for Angela every time she saw that porch light shine for her to decide if she should continue to give the ladies space or start trying to set them up with eligible bachelors just to push them down _any _path that led to grandbabies. She constantly had to remind herself to mind her own business. The topic was obviously a delicate one if Jane wasn't willing to talk about it.

* * *

"I think your mother might be starting to catch on, you know," Maura said as she flipped the switch to turn on the back porch light. "We've been dating for weeks now. Barold knows, Susie knows, Frankie knows. Why don't you want to tell your mother?" Maura asked.

"It's not that I don't want to tell her, I just don't feel like getting harassed about grandbabies and marriage and everything," Jane shrugged. "I'm sure she knows, she's the nosiest person I've ever met, and a drunk monkey would be able to see that _that light_ only goes on if _my_ car is here," Jane joked. "She's probably going nuts trying to figure us out, but hey, she's leaving me alone about something for once, so I'm gonna let her stew," Jane grinned mischievously.

"Oh," Maura said, and Jane sense dejection.

"Oh?" Jane prompted her. They'd made their way over to the couch and were deciding on what movie they should watch. Or what movie they should ignore, would be more accurate. Maura sat next to Jane and stayed on her own side of the couch, giving the Detective the distinct impression that something was wrong. Maura liked to be as close to Jane as possible at all times, so it was odd for the ME to not immediately ease herself into Jane's side. "Something wrong?"

"Yes," Maura stated and then she pouted towards the television.

"Would you like to share with the rest of the class?" Jane turned and nudged Maura's thigh with her toes.

"The class?" Maura looked over to Jane with confusion etched onto her face.

"It's a figure of speech, Maur," Jane grinned over at Maura before she cleared her throat to try again. "You want to _tell _me what's wrong?" She prodded.

"Oh, yes," Maura stated but remained silent. Jane stared at the smaller woman in anticipation for a moment and shrugged her hands up toward the ceiling when Maura didn't continue.

"Are you _trying _to drive me crazy?" Jane yelled and Maura finally chuckled.

"No, of course not, why, what did I say?" She asked innocently.

"For the love of- would you just tell me what's bothering you please?" Jane snarked out.

"It's your mother," Maura finally admitted.

"Ma?" Jane sat straighter. "Oh God, what did she do?" The Detective pleaded.

"She didn't _do _anything, Jane, it's what you did, or didn't do, rather, that's upsetting me." Maura turned to look at Jane. There was no accusation on her face, but Jane could tell that the ME was upset, and it became clear why.

"You want to tell her," Jane stated, and Maura nodded even though it hadn't been a question. Jane took a deep breath and laid her head on the back of the couch. "Why?" She whined out.

"_Because_ even though we haven't officially told anybody aside from Frost, Frankie, and Susie, virtually everybody at work seems to already be under the assumption that we're together, and the only reason we haven't confirmed anything is because you wanted to wait to tell Angela, and I respect that, but at the same time I would like to be able to hold your hand at work or kiss you for filling up my glass of wine during Sunday dinners." Maura let the words roll out of her in a breath and inhaled to continue in the same manner. "I don't want to have to keep censoring how I behave myself around you, and although I know that you aren't ashamed of our relationship, not being open about it makes me feel as though you could be embarrassed by it… or by me." Maura paused to gauge Jane's reaction.

"Are you crazy?" Jane all but shouted. "First of all, you already embarrass the crap out of me pretty much every day, but that does _not _mean that I'm embarrassed _by _you. Secondly, if either of us is gonna be embarrassed by the other it's _you _who should be embarrassed to be with _me!_" Jane pointed between the two of them and her eyebrows were raised in surprise.

"Why would _I_ be embarrassed?" Maura asked.

"Uhh, _hello!" _Jane gestured down to her stained sweatpants and well-worn t-shirt, and then to Maura's silky yellow pajama set. "Me, a slobby mess, you, an actual goddess," Jane finished with a snort and Maura shook her head in awed confusion. She would never understand how Jane could see herself as anything short of a goddess herself.

"So it's really just that you don't want to be berated by your mother about grandchildren?" Maura asked sadly and Jane nodded. "Is that worth it to you?"

"Is what worth it to me?" Jane asked. She was confused by the question.

"Not being able to hold my hand... Is it more valuable to you to keep your mother in the dark than it would be to freely kiss me at dinner, or… I don't know, send me chocolates at work or something?" Maura tried to explain why not telling Angela was bothering her so much. Jane hadn't considered it that way. She'd been in such a state of bliss already with her own knowledge that she was dating Maura. She didn't focus on how she couldn't hold Maura's hand at work; she relished in the fact that she could hold it at all. She didn't mind not kissing Maura in the bullpen, she knew she could sneak down into the ME's office whenever she wanted and spend ample time focusing on the good Doctor's lips in there. It hadn't occurred to Jane, in her blissful state of not being harassed by her mother, that she could dare long for more contact with the ME. Jane was already in a state of shock that Maura wanted to be with her _at all_, so to hear that Maura herself wanted more elated Jane.

"Man, I'm stupid," Jane chuckled out. "Of course it's not worth it, Maur! I'll go tell her right now if that's what you want!" Jane moved to stand up but Maura moved to grab her hips and keep her seated on the couch. "Uhh, Maur?"

"Can you please explain to me how your brain just processed my query?" Maura tilted her head to the side and stared at Jane as if she was examining the Detective. That look always made Jane's stomach flop and the Detective grinned while she nodded.

"I guess I just felt so lucky that I get to hold your hand," the Detective reached out to hold Maura's hand, "and kiss you at all," Jane leaned in to kiss the ME's plump lips, "that I forgot to consider that I was even allowed to want more," Jane chuckled and shook her head. Maura smiled sweetly over to Jane, finding it hard to believe that such an amazing person did not know her own worth. "I'd go shopping with my mother every damn day if it meant I got to hold your hand in front of her," Jane smiled at Maura who leaned in to kiss the Detective.

"Are you sure?" Maura asked, "I don't want to make you feel pressured, I know 'coming out' can be difficult, especially with Catholic-"

"Don't worry about that, Maur, Ma already caught Frankie sleeping with some dude he picked up from a bar, so I'm not worried she'll hate me," Jane reasoned.

"I didn't know Frankie had homosexual tendencies," Maura mused.

"Shit, Right," Jane ran her hand through her hair. "Don't say anything about it, he only told _me _so that I'd know Ma wouldn't disown me," Jane chuckled.

"I won't say anything, I promise," Maura said, and she held up her pinky finger toward Jane. The Detective shook her head and laughed as she entwined her own pinky finger with Maura's.

"I'm surprised you know of pinky promises," Jane mused aloud. "Doesn't seem like something those mean Boarding Schoolers would partake in," Jane adopted a fake English accent and spoke as poshly as she could. Maura laughed and scowled.

"They didn't, Susie showed me last week after I promised to keep a secret about something," Maura admitted.

"A secret? About what?" Jane nosed.

"I can't tell you, Jane, I did a pinky promise!" Maura explained, shocked that Jane would try to break her.

"But _I'm _your best friend, you're _supposed _to tell me everything," Jane argued.

"Oh, am I allowed to tell Frankie's best friend that he sometimes enjoys male company?" Maura challenged.

"Dear _God, _do _not _tell Frost that Frankie sleeps with men," Jane groaned out in defeat. "Okay, you win, but I'm gonna get it out of her," the Detective threatened.

"Would you _please _stop terrifying my assistants?" Maura pleaded, "I'm supposed to be engaging in_ team-building _exercises. It doesn't help if they see me fraternizing with somebody they classify as an enemy," Maura poked Jane in the chest playfully.

"I _do not _terrify your assistants!" Jane defended herself before a smirk appeared on her face as she thought to all the times Susie or some other lab tech had fled from the very sight of her. "Okay, maybe I do, but I don't do it on purpose!"

"Hopefully the weather permits us to play baseball soon. I like to think that they just need to see how much fun you are," Maura kissed Jane's cheek.

"So…" Jane began, "how am I gonna tell my Ma that we've been dating and that I didn't tell her about it?" She mused out loud.

"We could tell everybody officially together in a larger group," Maura suggested, "That way your mother will assume she was told at the same time as everybody else."

"Yeah," Jane nodded. "Or! We could just do what straight couples do and I'll start holding your hand and kissing you and people can come to their own conclusions. I mean, if you were a _man _my mother would have our entire wedding planned by now," Jane chuckled at the panicked look of Maura's face. "Do you want to do a whole big 'thing' or do you just wanna," Jane paused to shrug, "you know, date me?" Maura chuckled.

"I would love to start to publicly date you. I agree that same-sex couples shouldn't have to 'come out.'" Maura nodded as she leaned herself, finally, into Jane's side. "I'm sure if you were a man people would have stopped hitting on me at work by now." The ME mused out loud. Jane's metaphorical hackles raised and her voiced lowered threateningly.

"Who is hitting on you?" She asked in what would have seemed calm had it not been for her lowered grumbled voice.

"It's not important," Maura waved her off. "I was only continuing our observations. Susie told me that some of the beat cops don't even bother holding the door open for her anymore since word got out that she and Frost went on a couple of dates." Maura explained. Jane didn't like the idea of people not being polite and holding doors for Maura, but she liked even less the notion that others thought that the Doctor was single.

"Man, I'm gonna start dating you _so _hard," Jane shook her head and Maura looked up at her with an amused smile.

"Exactly how does one 'date hard?'" She asked.

"Just you wait and see," Jane kissed Maura's confused face and grinned down at the Doctor. "You're not gonna know what hit you."

"Dating isn't the only thing I'd like you to do to me… hard." Maura murmured slowly into Jane's ear.

"The skills are transferable," Jane said before she started to kiss Maura more deeply, excited that Maura had given consent to small public acts of affection. Jane had grand plans to show the ME just how much she appreciated that they were dating, and in doing so, showing the rest of the precinct that Maura was, in fact, off of every and any market for as long as Jane was around.

* * *

**Frankie, can you stop by my apartment and pick me up more clothes? - J**

Frankie looked down at his most recent text from his sister and rolled his eyes. He was on duty. He was working, and she _knew _that he was working, but she still asked him for random favors. How unprofessional. Of course, he wasn't exactly _doing_ anything besides eating a donut, but _she _didn't know that. Frankie rolled his eyes at his phone and tossed it onto the table in the Cafe. Frost looked up in confusion and eyed his friend until he broke.

"It's Jane. Again," he explained to the Detective. "She wants me to bring more of her shit to Maura's. Jesus, she'll basically be moved in by the end of spring at this rate," the younger Rizzoli threw his food into his tray and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, it sucks being a beat cop on the path to homicide," Frost agreed carefully. Frankie had been unusually sulky lately but hadn't shared why.

"At least you didn't have to get things for your _sister,"_ Frankie argued.

"No, but I do still have to get things for _your_ sister," Frost grinned at his friend from across the table and Frankie chuckled, relaxing his arms.

"Yeah, I suppose she and Korsak send you to get subs and coffee when I'm not around, huh?"

"Sometimes even if you _are_ around," Frost rolled his eyes and Frankie looked confused so he explained. "Well, I know how much work you're putting into learning all about the Detective's Exam, so when you seem particularly stressed I just offer to go instead." Frost shrugged as if it were no big deal. He had expected an awkward 'thanks' from Frankie, but the youngest Rizzoli sat across from him silently, clenching and unclenching his jaw. Jane did that when she was pissed and had to keep her words inside. He'd never seem Frankie do it though. "Does that bother you? I can stop if you want to do it for the credit or whatever, I just figured that since you've already got Korsak's recommendation and Jane is your sister that I might help you out…"

"It's fine," Frankie said flatly. "It's... nice. Listen, I gotta go, I need to go get Jane's clothes so…" Frankie moved to stand from the booth and Frost stood with him.

"Jane's upstairs working a case with us, she's not gonna need the clothes until later tonight. I thought you wanted to work out a bit before you started your shift…" Frost tried to get Frankie to sit back down to that they could talk about whatever was bothering the younger Rizzoli, but Frankie just shrugged him off.

"It's easier to just get it done… See ya, man." Frankie said before he left.

Frost stared after him in confusion. Frankie almost always saved Jane's requests for the last possible minute just to spite his sister. It had been an entertaining habit to witness. Frost wondered if something had happened between the Rizzoli siblings to alter Frankie's mood. He finished his breakfast alone and decided that if the younger Rizzoli sibling wouldn't talk, maybe the older one would. With that, he went to find Jane at her desk.

"Yo yo, Rizzo," he said as he sat across from her. She looked up in amusement at his greeting.

"Whaddup, Frosty B?" She joked back.

"You both need to stop that before I have to register you for sensitivity training… _again," _Korsak said from his perch near their desks and the partners laughed. They'd been interviewing a plethora of gangbangers that week and had made a sort of strange game of imitating the particularly stupid ones. They'd received many complaints from their colleagues but the pair of them found it hilarious.

"You mad that you're being excluded for being a white male?" Frost joked over to the older man.

"Sad that we're _privileged _enough to be able to joke in such a way?" Jane teased. Korsak rolled his eyes and waved the pair of them off. He knew he had no right to deny their claims.

"No, just don't want the brass to hear you two and have to spend a week sweating my balls off in Philly, _again." _He referenced their previous sensitivity training seminar once more.

"Not to worry," Frost waved him off. "It's all _online_ now," he joked with a wink and Jane laughed. Korsak scowled and stood from his desk, leaving the children to play by themselves while he made himself more coffee. He'd never had kids of his own, but he imagined that fatherhood was similar to this nonsense.

"What's actually up, Frost?" Jane asked after they'd stopped trying to throw things toward Korsak's retreating form.

"Did you and Frankie get in a fight or something? He seems mad about something lately." Frost asked. Jane scrunched her face up and tilted her head to the side.

"No, I don't think so," she scratched the back of her head. "I mean, I _did_ accidentally rip one of his old Chogokin posters while I was helping Ma clean his old room, but he didn't care much at the time. Did he complain about it?" Jane seemed surprised and guilty, and Frost laughed at the oddity that was sibling relationships.

"No, he didn't say anything. I was just supposed to eat breakfast and go to the gym with him this morning, but after you texted him to grab more stuff to bring to Maura's, he kind of just… left… right away," Frost looked confused and hurt as he told Jane what had happened.

"That _is _weird… he didn't even text me back to call me an asshole or anything. Did he say anything else?" Jane was now worried about her brother's odd behavior.

"Not really, he complained that you're an ass," Frost jokingly confirmed, "and then I said that we'd all been the runner before, but that I help him out by getting our coffees if I notice he seems really busy or whatever," Frost shrugged, "then he said he had to go."

Jane quickly put the pieces together. She'd been there before. Frankie had some sort of feeling for his best friend and was confused and angry at Frost's caring behavior, but instead of lashing out, Frankie was removing himself from the situation. She couldn't tell any of this to Frost of course, but she was glad to hear that Frankie's behavior wasn't due to anything new.

"Maybe you should just… I dunno, give him some space?" Jane suggested. She'd known Frost for a while now and had only ever seen him with women. She'd only ever seen Frankie with women too, but she didn't want her little brother to get hurt. Man, when had her life gotten so complicated? She was dating her own best friend publicly, her little brother was interested in her partner who was interested in a woman. Her mother was living in her best friend's guesthouse. Complicated. Jane didn't like it. Her job was complicated enough, and she didn't want to bring any of that mess home with her. "How are you and Susie doing?" Jane asked, trying to gauge just how hard she should push Frost to leave Frankie alone for a while.

"Oh, we went out on a couple of dates, but we decided that there wasn't enough chemistry," Frost shrugged casually.

"And you're not pining after the lost affection like a love-sick puppy?" Jane smirked at him and he chucked a pencil at her.

"_No,_" he responded, "we thought we'd see if we were a good fit, but we aren't. No harm, no foul. She's one hell of a good friend, though." he clapped his hands together as if he here cleaning dirt from his palms.

"How _mature _of you," Jane teased.

"Yes, I am very mature. A full-blown adult over here," Frost pointed to himself. "Well, I just need to find a suitor."

"A suitor? _Really?_" Jane looked at him in disdain. "You've been spending _way_ too much time with Maura," Jane joked.

"I happened to have had a perfectly fine vocabulary _before _me and your Robo-wife started to work here," Frost defended and Jane rolled her eyes at his terminology. Jane decided to do something she'd never in a million years do if the situation was not so dire. She decided to be nosey like her mother.

"Why don't you, uh, you know, do what I did?" Jane asked quietly.

"Do what you did?" Frost repeated in confusion before he grinned and took on a feminine voice. "Longingly stare after my best friend for _weeks_ and wait for a traumatizing event to take place to finally reveal my undying love to them?" He grinned over at Jane and batted his lashes. She rolled her eyes largely at him.

"Yes. No, wait, no. I don't know!" Jane snarked. "I didn't longingly stare after- whatever, my _point was_, why don't you like, give the, umm, _other _team a go?" Jane muttered the last part and Frost burst out laughing.

"Jane, you're literally _in_ a homosexual relationship and you can't even say the word 'gay?'" Frost shook his head in amusement.

"I can say gay!" Jane shouted and then lowered her voice when she heard other people in the bullpen sniggering at their argument.

"You saying that you've had such a great time batting for the other team that you recommend everybody give it a go?" Frost chuckled at Jane's reddening cheeks as she put up with his teasing.

"_No,"_ Jane defended. "I just… you never said they you _weren't_ into men and I've learned not to assume…" Jane tiptoed about the topic as if it were a bomb. She didn't give a rats ass if Frost liked dick or not, but she knew that her little brother cared, and the imminent explosion could destroy him.

"You know, I want to feel annoyed or something, but I asked Frankie the same thing about you back when we were just getting to know Maura," Frost laughed at the memory of Frankie pretending to be upset.

"You asked _Frankie_ if I was a _lesbian?"_ Jane whispered harshly and Frost snorted his laughter.

"Yup, and now you can't really be upset about it, cause you just asked _me _to my face!" Frost grinned.

"No, that's not the same thing," Jane argued. "How would _you_ feel if I texted Frankie right now to ask him if _you_ were gay?" Jane asked the question and held up her phone to make her point.

"No, don't!" Frost reached up toward the phone Jane was pretending to unlock and they both froze.

"Shit, Frost, I was just kidding, I wasn't actually gonna text him…" Jane mumbled. "Why… why would it matter?" Jane asked kindly.

"Because I want him to keep being my friend and if he knew that I've… been… _inv_olved with men then he might not… feel comfortable around me anymore," Frost looked down toward his keyboard and Jane snorted. Frost looked up and mistook the noise to mean that he'd offended Jane. "Not that he's a bad guy, or whatever, it's just… _different_ with men. Like I could be friends with the coolest, most open guy in the world, like Frankie," Jane smirked when Frost paused to compliment her brother, "but it's happened before where I've told them and they just _assume_ that I'd be interested in them or that I'm suddenly some kind of pervert. Frankie is my best friend and as good a guy as he is, and even though he reacted fine with you and Maura… that doesn't mean he'd be okay with me being…" Frost finished with a shrug. "Male friends are just harder to tell-"

"-and you don't want to stop being friends with my brother," Jane finished for him and nodded her understanding. She didn't know what to do with the information. On the one hand, it was great that Frost had just admitted to being liking men, but that didn't necessarily mean that he'd be interested in Frankie in _that way._ It might just hurt Frankie even more to know that Frost was open to dating men… just not him. Jane decided that she should not have tried to help, and vowed to stay out of her brother's business from now on. They both received enough overbearing nosiness from their mother already.

"Do you think that's why he's been so distant with me? Think he figured it out somehow?" Frost asked in what would have sounded like a calm tone to anybody but Jane.

"Absolutely not," she replied immediately. "Listen, I can guarantee that's not the reason he's avoiding you if he even _is _avoiding you. Frankie's had gay friends before and… stuff. And I won't say anything, by the way, I know how shitty some of the guys here are when it comes to people like… well people like us I guess," Jane laughed and shrugged and Frost calmed down a bit too as he chuckled.

"Man, I really need to fix this thing with Frankie before we play ball against the Geek Squad," Frost straightened his tie out of habit and Jane smiled at the movement.

"Yeah, communication is key," Jane agreed and stated in a professional voice.

"_Now_ who's spending too much time with Maura?" Frost teased and narrowly dodged a pencil Jane projectiled toward him.

"Jane!" Maura ran into the bullpen with impressive speed considering the height of her heels. "Jane, they're done! It's finished! I am _never_ letting Pike use my office again!" Maura stopped in front of the Detective's desk and clasped her hands excitedly together, shimmying slightly on the spot. Jane thought it was adorable and sexy at the same time and could see several of her coworkers making the same assessment. She decided she'd put her new right to PDA to work as soon as possible so that the neanderthals she worked with would learn to keep their hands and eyes off of the Doctor. Her Doctor. Jane instinctively stood from her chair to expose her height, causing Maura to look at her in confusion. "What are you doing?" She asked and Jane moved to stand next to her.

"Nothing, go on," Jane waved her off. "They're done with your office remodeling?" Jane asked. The ME had been chirping happily about the new pieces she'd purchased for the room since she'd been back to work.

"Yes, and it's beautiful, would you like to come to see it?" Maura asked excitedly. Jane nodded and opened her mouth to speak but she was interrupted.

"Beautiful office for a beautiful doctor," Detective Crowe was leaning on his own desk a few feet away and was openly staring at Maura. It wasn't an altogether inappropriate comment, but it _was _unwelcome. Jane instinctively moved to stand in front of Maura, but the ME place a hand on her forearm to stop the movement. Frost discreetly stood up and moved out from behind his own desk.

"Thank you, if you'll excuse me, I was just going to show Detective Rizzoli my new office," Maura stepped forward toward the exit, which was inconveniently placed on the other side of Crowe and his partner Hitchcock.

"Yeah?" Hitchcock stood and blocked Maura's path. "Hows about you take _me _down there instead and I can even help you christen it?" Frost and Jane exchanged a loaded look. They were both willing to tackle the other men to the ground if Maura indicated that she was losing control of the situation.

"No thank you," Maura calmly stated and tried to move passed him. He held his arm out to block her path and she struggled to move the arm out of her way and quickly decided her efforts were futile. She still had one hand on Jane's wrist to indicate that she didn't need or want the Detective's help, but Maura sensed the penetrating stare that Jane was giving to the man. She squeezed Jane's wrist to let the Detective know that she was confident and in control.

"Man muscles seem to work better than female ones, sorry you couldn't get by," Crowe said from his perch on his desk. He didn't sound sorry at all.

"That's incorrect, male and female muscle tissue is identical; what differs is bone structure. Men also tend to have less fat…" Maur glanced down at Hitchcocks well-stuffed belly, "but not always," she smiled up at him and Jane and Frost chuckled.

"You heard her," Jane spoke from slightly behind Maura, "you've got a snowball's chance in hell to christen _an_ything with _my _girlfriend," she growled out.

"Your _girlfriend?"_ Crowe choked out in surprise. Maura looked over to Jane's angry face and smiled. She'd just been called Jane's girlfriend for the first time ever. By Jane. In front of the entire bullpen.

"Yeah, _my_ _girlfriend_," Jane confirmed. "Learn how to be respectful of her or I'll have _your_ ass chained to the interrogation table for sexual harassment," Jane growled out.

"I don't believe it for a second," Crowe said as he made is way off of his desk. A crowd had drawn around them in the room. Funny that a room full of people trained to de-escalate conflict did nothing to stop Jane from tearing Crowe a new one; they all wanted to see it happen. "I'm like the Doctor here, I won't believe anything unless I see it with my own two eyes," Crowe lifted an eyebrow and Jane rolled her eyes at him. "C'mon doc, give your '_girlfriend'_ a kiss and prove it!" Hitchcock laughed and grabbed Maura's wrist and tried to turn her around to face Jane, but he wasn't expecting her surprising amount of strength.

"Let go of me now, or I'll press charges for assault," Maura spoke patiently. She almost seemed bored with the situation.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Crowe said, and Hitchcock let go of Maura's wrist and spoke.

"I knew you were lying, Rizzoli, as if some dumb fucking bull-dyke piece of shit, broke ass bitch could ever land someone as hot and rich as-" he was cut off by Maura punching him square in the face. "You dumb _bitch,_" Hitchcock brought his hand up to his nose and wiped at the blood that was gushing from it. "You broke my _fucking _nose, I'm gonna-"

"-Going to apologize for being so disrespectful and unprofessional before I decide to press charges?" Maura asked.

"_You_ press charges?" Hitchcock scoffed. "_You _hit _me!" _

"Yes I did," Maura confirmed. "After repeatedly requesting that you cease your behavior, you refused to listen and became violent, so I defended myself and Detective Rizzoli in the only way that you seemed able to understand."

"Oh, the Captain _will _hear about this," Crowe said, looking in disgust towards Hitchcock's nose.

"Yeah?" Jane asked, "What are you gonna tell him?" She put her hand on her hip and waited, but Frost joined too.

"You gonna tell him how you sexually harassed and then physically restrained Doctor Isles in a room with over twenty _police officer _eye-witnesses of the event?" Frost moved to stand beside Maura to make sure that Hitchcok's obvious rage wouldn't be taken out on the small woman. Jane's pride swelled for her partner's action.

"God knows who we'd side with," Jane heard someone mutter from the crowd.

"Rizzoli, what in _God's _name is going on here?" Korsak reentered the bullpen to see his crew and their 'nemeses' posturing with a calm looking Doctor Isles wiping the blood off of her hand with a tissue she'd gotten from her purse.

"Why do you assume it's my fault?" Jane turned to argue with her old partner.

"Because I've known you for twelve years," Korsak argued back. Jane opened her mouth and took a deep breath to retaliate but Maura spoke before she could.

"Nothing's the matter, Vincent," Maura said sweetly as she finished cleaning her hand. "I had a minor disagreement with one of the Detectives but I believe it's been sorted," She turned to look at Hitchcock who was still fuming. "Am I correct?" She asked him. Korsak read on the Detective's embarrassed face that he wanted nothing more than to argue with Maura. Instead, he turned his face sideways toward the ground and muttered a quick 'yeah,' before he and Detective Crowe exited the bullpen.

"Well, what are we all standing around for?" Korsak shouted into the room, "Don't we all have criminals to catch and paperwork to do?" With that, the crowd dissipated and Jane could finally relax a little.

"Why the hell did we even hire those guys?" Frost complained.

"Because they're brass kissing assholes who-"

"Rizzoli," Korsak said sternly, and Jane stopped talking.

"Okay, _Dad," _She joked, "I'll behave!" Jane stuck her hands up in surrender, eliciting a chuckle from Frost and Maura.

"I'm not old enough to be your dad!" Korsak stated.

"Well you're not pretty enough to be our mother," Frost teased. Jane laughed and shook her head. "Your hand okay Maura?" He asked the Doctor.

"I'm fine," Maura held her hand out to Frost so he could examine it. "Jane's been teaching me self defense and basic combat, so I knew how to strike him so it would hurt him but not me," Maura made a proper fist with her hand and Frost nodded his approval. Jane smiled over proudly to the pair of them.

"Doctor Isles punched Hitchcock?" Korsak sputtered out and Jane patted him on the back once before she confirmed.

"Square in the face, perfect form," Jane proudly stated, and Korsak looked at the smaller woman in surprise. He recalled the blood pouring from Hitchcock's nose, and could already tell that the man would be nursing a couple of black eyes come the next day.

"Damn, who knew you packed such heat," Korsak said to Maura.

"Man, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that punch," Frost complimented.

"You should be equally fearful of my prowess at baseball then," Maura said excitedly. "I have practiced the sport much more than I have practiced hand to hand combat!"

"That doesn't mean you'll win, Maur," Jane rolled her eyes and smiled down at the ME.

"No, but my intestines have a good feeling," Maura smiled up at Jane who chuckled at the blonde's misuse of the phrase. The Detective moved to capture the ME's lips in a quick kiss. "Would you like to come to see the new decorations now?" Maura asked brightly.

"Absolutely," Jane said. The pair of women bid the guys adieu and made their way down to the morgue, for the first time, hand in hand.

"I guess they finally go together, huh?" Korsak asked Frost as the two women walked away.

"Looks that way," Frost smiled to the older man.

"Good."

* * *

Angela walked in through Maura's back door and thought for a moment that nobody was home. The muffled sound of the television drew her in further though, and she glimpsed a few strands of Jane's unruly curls splayed across the armrest of the couch. She quietly made her way around the couch and clamped one hand over her heart as she tried not to say 'aww.'

Jane was laying on her back and Maura was tucked in between the back of the couch and Jane, with her head resting in the crook of the Detective's neck and one leg tucked over Jane's middle. They were asleep. Angela took her phone out and snapped a couple of pictures that she intended on eventually showing the women. They still hadn't told her they were dating but there was now no doubt in Angela's mind that they belonged together.

Maura started to stir slightly so Angela made her way back over to the door she'd entered through. She didn't want to embarrass the women by catching them in the act of cuddling.

* * *

"Go, Jane!" Maura yelled from her seat on the bench. The Detective had stepped up to the baseball plate and had readied her stance to bat. "Stroke up! That's how Crystl Bustos won the gold! The wind is at ten nine!"

"_Thank you_, Maura!" Jane yelled back sarcastically. She had taught Maura that particular fact.

"You're not supposed to support the other team!" Susie yelled from the pitcher's mound, tossing the ball from her hand into her mitt repeatedly.

"That scared we're gonna win?" Frost teased from his place on second base causing Frankie to roll his eyes from first.

"In your dreams, Frost," Susie called back.

"We're _supposed _to be having fun!" Maura laughed from the bench.

"No, we're _supposed_ to be kicking Geek Squad ass!" Jane retorted, "Right down the middle, Susie!" The Detective shouted cockily.

"As you wish," Susie muttered before she wound up and released the fastball into the air. Jane swung and hit the ball far into the outfield and she moved around the bases along with Frost and her brother. One of Maura's underlings introduced as Alex Simmons ran and caught the ball before it hit the ground, causing a plethora of frustrated groans from Jane's team.

"Good hit, Jane!" Maura called from the bench.

"Maura!" Jane complained loudly.

"Oh, it's my turn?" Maura asked excitedly. She stood and ran excitedly to take the bat from Jane. "I'm ready!"

"Yeah, you look it," Jane joked as she eyed Maura's form-fitting jumpsuit. "You look like a racecar threw up on Lady Gaga."

"Jane, this is water-resistant," Maura put her hands on her hips defiantly. She didn't care how ridiculous she looked, she cared about the functionality of the outfit for the purpose of the game. "One layer skin made with Dyneema. It's light and comfortable due to intrinsic cooling properties." She finished with a proud smile that Jane internally swooned at.

"And it shows off your ass," Jane leaned in to murmur to Maura.

"Come on, I'm right here!" Frankie said as he walked by. He made a face at Jane who laughed and shrugged with an apologetic smile. Their teams switched places as Maura took hold of the bat. Frost took Susie's place on the pitcher's mound and Frankie took his place as the catcher.

"I would just like to verify that my team is ahead by seven?" Maura teasingly called out to Jane as the Detective moved to become shortstop. Jane turned around and stuck her tongue out and Maura laughed.

"Alright, Isles," Frost grinned over to the Doctor. "How do you want it?" He asked, holding the ball up in the air.

"Surprise me!" Maura smiled confidently and chuckled as the unsure look Frost gave her. He wound up and propelled the ball forward as hard as he could. The satisfying echo of the bat hitting the ball sounded across the field and Maura laughed in excitement before she started to run. Korsak chased after the ball but by the time he got to it and threw it back to Jane, the Doctor had already rounded third. "Home run!" Maura started jumping on the spot. "Jane, I got a home run!" She repeated, and Susie ran up to her and gave the ME a hug. Maura immediately returned the gesture and the ME's team started to cheer as if they'd just played professionally.

The Detective's team grumbled in disappointment, and Jane tried to join in on their emotions, but the sight of Maura bouncing happily in place on the home plate brought a smile to her face instead.

"Lucky you had such a nice pitcher!" A small, muscular man shouted from the bleachers. Frost and the Rizzoli siblings turned their attention to him. Jane saw Frost largely roll his eyes and clench his jaw.

"What are you doing here, Andrew?" Frost asked harshly. He wasn't exactly rude, but the cadence of his tone indicated that he was not happy to see the other man.

"You said you'd be playing ball near my work today, so I decided to stop by," Andrew smiled at Frost.

"Yeah, so you'd stay the hell away from me," Frost grumbled.

"You, uh, wanna introduce us to your friend, there, Frost?" Frankie stepped forward and spoke in a friendly way, trying to diffuse the tension.

"They don't know?" The man said tauntingly before he scoffed. "And I thought you were brave…" Frost threw his mitt to the ground and Jane and Frankie both had to rush forward to stop him from aggressively approaching the stranger. The other man simply laughed and shook his head. "Guess some things never change," he spat before he walked away. Frost made to follow him but Frankie placed his hands on Frost's shoulders and spoke calmingly to his friend.

"Woah, buddy, take a breath," Frankie looked to Frost's face until the Detective made eye contact, "go cool off, alright? We don't need any more homicides happening right now," Frankie joked and Frost minimally smirked before he nodded and took off toward his car.

Korsak and Maura had seen the situation and had approached at some point during the altercation. Jane turned to stare after Frost in confused interest.

"What the hell was that?" She asked nobody in particular.

"Frost stared at him like he was a perp!" Korsak inputted.

"You think he stared?" Maura asked. "A casual fixation with no intention to detail?" Maura shook her head in the negative. "I think he _scrutinized_. Close, attentive examination," Maura corrected.

"That was a _tad _hostile for our friend, Barry…" Jane said.

"No kidding!" Korsak agreed. "I think they've met before," He said. Frankie remained silent but he couldn't stop thinking about Andrew. He knew the man from somewhere but couldn't place him at the moment. It was going to drive him crazy until he could figure it out.

"Well…" Maura clapped her hands together, "It looks like you're down a player!" She said brightly and her friends turned to look at her. "Which _means _that you can no longer play and my team wins!" She smiled brightly over to Jane.

"No!" Jane protested, "that's not fair! Come on, Maur, we'll rematch sometime when we can finish!" Jane actually stomped her foot and Maura chuckled.

"Janie, we were down by eight…" Frankie finally spoke. "They were gonna win anyway," he concluded as he glanced down at his watch. Korsak nodded in agreement and Jane huffed in annoyance.

"Your mother is going to be so happy!" Maura claimed happily.

"Oh no," Jane said as realization dawned on her. She'd lost. She'd have to go shopping with Maura… and her mother. "Oh, _no," _she repeated and the group laughed. "Can we call it a draw? We didn't come up with rules for forfeit!" Jane whined.

"...Fine," Maura agreed reluctantly. "But you guys still have to buy our drinks!" She quickly amended. Jane grinned at the ME and laughed at the grimace that overtook Maura's face as she realized she'd just agreed to wear Jane's clothes for a week.

"Hey!" Susie shouted from some distance off. "We're getting thirsty over here from all that winning! We going to the Robber or what?" The Geek Squad cheered in agreement and Frankie's face contorted into one of confusion as he saw Alex from the lab give Susie a quick peck on the cheek. He shook his head at the woman and had to bite his tongue as he walked passed the Criminalist. From Frankie's point of view, Frost and Susie were still together, and he didn't like that she'd hurt his best friend in such a painful and obvious way. He couldn't believe that she wasn't even trying to hide it. He clenched his jaw tightly. He'd have to break the news.

Jane and Maura straggled behind the rest.

"So, where do you think Barry and that guy know each other from?" Jane asked conversationally.

"There are thousands of places, Jane, I could never guess," Maura said casually.

"Well, it _seemed _personal…" Jane mused aloud. "Did you get the sense that they'd slept together?" Jane asked. Frost and Maura were close friends and the ME also knew of his history with men so Jane didn't mind casually bringing it up.

"I'm not very good at figuring out who's sleeping with whom," Maura spoke apologetically as they approached Maura's car.

"Sure, you can read facial muscles like a book, but situational tension is like hieroglyphics," Jane teased.

"Are you making fun of me?" Maura pouted.

"Yes," Jane confirmed before she leaned down to plant a kiss to Maura's lips. When she pulled away, Maura was smiling too. The Detective rolled her eyes when Maura opened the passenger side door for her but the remained smiling as she took her seat within the vehicle. Jane watched through the windshield as Maura said something to Susie and Korsak. She was so glad to have found Maura that she literally had trouble breathing sometimes. Maura got into the driver's seat and looked over at the grinning Detective.

"What?" Maura smiled bashfully. She was struck by the adoration in the brunette's eyes and her love for the Detective grew impossibly larger.

"Nothin'," Jane smiled lopsidedly before she turned her head to the front of the vehicle. She'd been momentarily frozen by her feelings towards the ME. She wanted to share just how much she loved Maura, but it was too soon. Jane knew though that the love was real. It had a sort of comfortable permanence to it that eased the Detective of any doubt that her feelings were premature. These feelings could never have come soon enough…

* * *

Frankie caught up quickly with Barry and awkwardly clapped him on the back.

"Who the hell was that guy?" Frankie said while he caught his breath.

"Andrew Farrell…" Frost responded shortly before clenching his teeth together.

"You alright?" Frankie asked. Frost just shrugged and continued to clench his jaw. "Okay, I guess not…" Frankie suddenly remembered where he knew Andrew from and he stopped walking in his tracks. Barry turned around to look at him questioningly. The younger Rizzoli had a hazy flashback to one of his explorations into the gay community. Frankie was out celebrating his acceptance into BPD and he ended up at a popular gay bar. He'd been chatting with the handsome bartender for the majority of the night, but he could distinctly remember that the bartender's attention kept getting dragged away by a drunk, mopey man who was complaining about a bad breakup… the man's hair was different than it had been today, but it was definitely the same person. About three years ago…

"You coming?" Barry gestured towards the vehicle. Frankie had just been standing there staring at him for what felt like minutes. Frankie remained standing on the spot. It was possible that Frost dated men… It was plausible that Frost had long-term relationships with men. There was only one way to find out for sure.

"Well, what happened?" Frankie asked, not sure what else to say. "He dumped your ass, didn't he?" The younger Rizzoli tried to joke. "When and where?"

"Oh, about three years ago at the corner of 'none of your business' and 'don't ask,'" Frost responded harshly.

"Oh..." Frankie grimaced slightly at his overstep and quieted down, thinking about Frost's confirmation of the timeline he'd estimated. It was not very Rizzoli-like to quiet down and Frost immediately regretted his aggression. Frankie just cared, Frost couldn't really blame him for that.

"He, uh…" Frost paused to clench his jaw and shake his head. "He married his job instead of me," He finished and glanced toward the ground.

"Then he's an idiot," Frankie responded resolutely and Barry grinned slightly at him.

"Yeah…" Frost nodded. "So am I."

"Eh, we're all idiots," Frankie shrugged him off and Barry scoffed in amusement. "And idiots who owe the nerds some drinks. Shall we?" Frankie gestured awkwardly to Frost's car and the Detective's face finally shifted from a hard scowl into his usual grin. Frost nodded and they made their way slowly to the car.

"Does uh… does it make you uncomfortable?" Frost asked quietly.

"Does what make me-oh!" Frankie scratched the back of his head as the walked. "Uhh, nope."

"Then why are you acting like Jane does when Maura says something especially embarrassing?" Frost chuckled and Frankie rolled his eyes.

"I am not!" Frankie argued in a high pitched voice before he cleared his throat causing Frost to laugh. Frankie decided not to tell Frost about his own sexuality or his feelings. They weren't helpful right now… and they might not ever be helpful. "I don't care, man. As far as I'm concerned you can kiss all the guys you want, alright?" Frankie chuckled.

"Not all of them," Frost muttered too quietly for Frankie to hear. Frankie thought of Susie and Alex kissing and remembered that he had to tell Frost about the incident.

"I um…" Frankie paused for a loaded silence. "I saw Susie and Alex kissing…"

"Good for her!" Frost genuinely said.

"Okay, I'm cool if you're into men, but I do _not _want to hear about swinging," Frankie joked and Frost laughed in confusion.

"We're not together, Frankie, we just went out a couple of times," Frost explained through his laughter.

"Too bad," Frankie mused. "She's nice… and smart. What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing is _wrong _with her, you asshat," Frost pushed Frankie's shoulder before he continued. Frost looked around and leaned in towards Frankie to mutter the rest. "She said Chogokin was lame," Frost grimaced at the very thought.

"No!" Frankie admonished. "She didn't!" Frost just nodded solemnly. "Then she's not the one for you!" Frost scoffed.

"If liking ChockerKin is what it takes then I might as well marry you," Frost laughed and Frankie punched his shoulder.

"You should be so lucky!" The younger Rizzoli joked, "I'm a real catch, you know."

"Your mother tell you that?" Frost sniggered and Frankie blushed slightly.

"... Yes."

* * *

**I'm having fun writing Frost and Frankie lmao. Don't worry tho, Rizzles is still the main focus. I'm having a blast being the puppet master. **


	19. Chapter 19

**This is a short chapter. I've been crazy busy at work. RIP. **

* * *

Jane woke alone in her apartment the day after the baseball game. Maura had been called into work but Jane wasn't needed. With the number of times the Detective had been startled awake by the incessant knocking on her door, she figured she would be used to it but she wasn't. She grumbled and threw the blankets off of herself. She was feeling especially cranky as she walked toward the door to answer it.

"We're going for a run this morning, come on!" Maura said sweetly with a bright smile. She was dressed in her usual running gear; tight spandex pants and shirt with a thin sweater over top, holding an attire bag in her hand.

"What?" Jane snarked out. "Uh-uh, no way, I already showered," she complained loudly. To her surprise, Maura leaned in and sniffed her.

"Hmm, last night or this morning?" Maura asked and Jane raised her eyebrows offendedly. "Nevermind! Let's go!" Maura kept her upbeat attitude in place and Jane rolled her eyes.

"No, I don't want to, Maura, I'm tired and I'm hungry, I haven't eaten breakfast yet!" Jane continued to complain as she walked back into her apartment towards her kitchen. Maura followed and shook her head at Jane's old sweats that the Detective usually wore to bed. The ME further grimaced when she saw Jane pull out a box of cocoa puffs and pour herself a large bowl of the chocolatey cereal and begin to eat it.

"You get endorphins from physical activity! Runner's high kicks in around mile twelve… endorphins are comparable to orgasm," Maura tried to argue and Jane smirked over her bowl of cereal.

"Or _maybe _we could compromise?" Jane asked slyly. Maura was intrigued by the look on Jane's face and nodded carefully.

"Well I happen to know of physical activity we could engage in that _also _releases endorphins…" Jane murmured and Maura blushed only slightly at how forward Jane was acting.

"You know, you do need to boost your immune system and sex is very good for that." Maura smiled sweetly over to Jane and moved the cereal bowl away from the Detective who still had the spoon in her hand.

"Thank you, Doctor," Jane said as professionally as she could muster before she turned from her food and walked purposefully toward her bathroom to make herself more presentable. Jane took a moment to brush her teeth and looked at her hairbrush for a half-second before she decided that the battle she'd have with her unruly curls was not worth the effort. Jane took in her appearance and she couldn't help but chuckle at what she saw. Maura had arrived in what was probably the world's most expensive running outfit and there Jane was, dressed in sweats she'd had since high school. A smile crept over her features as she thought about how lucky she was to have met Maura.

"What's the science behind the phrase 'opposites attract?'" Jane asked as she entered her bedroom.

"If you're referring to magnets then the science is that north and south poles of magnets are attracted to each other, whereas south and south or north and north pairings will create a repulsion," Maura smiled as she got to share her knowledge, happy that Jane had asked. "If you're referring to the phrase in reference to humans, then it's been proven to be a myth."

"Why do we get along so well, then?" Jane asked as Maura approached her. The smaller woman wrapped her arms around Jane's middle and she looked up lovingly into the Detective's face.

"We might have different tastes in clothes and be from different backgrounds but we're very similar where it matters, Jane," Maura leaned up to chastely kiss the brunette.

"Where it matters most?" Jane reached around Maura's waist to pull the smaller woman closer.

"Mhmm, we both have similar values and interests. For every difference we have, I think we have at least… five similarities," Maura smiled up at Jane.

"Five? You've done the math, huh?" Jane teased. "So if we were magnets you wouldn't be repulsed by me then?" Jane chuckled.

"No, if we were magnets, I'd be very _very _attracted," Maura leaned up to capture Jane's lips in a sensual kiss and she began to tug at the brunette's shirt. Jane's hands unzipped Maura's sweater and it fell to the ground. Jane's shirt followed and Maura backed up slightly toward the bed as she removed her own shirt, pants, and undergarments. She sat on the edge of Jane's bed and the Detective watched in awe as the Doctor undressed, adding her clothes to the pile on the floor.

"You're gorgeous," flew out of Jane's mouth as the thought popped into her head. She smiled at the look of adoration that crossed Maura's face as she heard the compliment. Jane took a moment to admire the full curves of the other woman. Although Maura was shaped femininely, she was still muscularly toned and had a hidden strength that both impressed and aroused Jane.

"Come here," Maura lifted her hands to pull Jane closer to the bed so that she could undress the Detective completely. They fell back onto the bed together and began a slow, tentative kiss.

Instead of the fervent, urgent movements that Maura had experienced the first time they'd had sex, Jane was now taking her time to slowly caress and softly kiss every part of Maura that she could reach. Where the first time Jane had been claiming and controlling, this time the Detective took the time to build up slowly and tenderly to Maura's release. The brunette looked to Maura's eyes often and the ME saw reverence within the kind brown. In every way that Jane had claimed her before, the Detective was now worshipping. Maura adored the movements made by Jane and returned them just as lovingly with obeisance. While her first sexual experience with Jane had completely satiated her needs and desires, the way their bodies moved together this time, the way they paused to kiss or find each other's eyes, the way their hands frequently found each others', added an extra layer of emotional fulfillment that neither of them had experienced previously. The women lost connection to everything but each other and knew nothing else but the feel of their bodies melding together, they knew the feel of the other's hands and tongues, they learned the caress of a lover's touch as they built up slowly to each other's release and came together.

They lay together afterward holding each other afterward, both in awe of the connection they made with each other.

"You give me stupid butterflies," Jane finally broke the silence bashfully. "I feel like I'm seventeen or something."

"Release of epinephrine… draws blood away from the stomach, sends it to the muscles. You are lovesick," Maura diagnosed before she kissed the Detective.

"Yeah, I guess I am…" Jane smirked. "Good thing I'm dating a Doctor then, huh?" She asked playfully.

"Mhmm," Maura agreed, kissing Jane again. Jane attempted to deepen the kiss but they were interrupted by yet another knock on the door.

"Janie!" Angela called out into the empty apartment. Jane jumped up quickly and pulled on her sweatpants and a t-shirt before she tossed Maura's clothes vaguely toward the bed, hitting the ME in the face with the bundle, causing the ME to release a small 'oof.'

"Sorry," Jane whispered before she quickly made her way toward the kitchen to meet her mother.

"Ma, what the hell?" Jane stammered out.

"What?" Angela asked. "I thought we were going shopping! Maura's car is outside and everything, I thought she was here…" The elder Rizzoli looked over Jane's shoulder suspiciously.

"Yeah… she's here um…" Jane stammered and looked behind her towards her bedroom. "She's just getting ready!"

"How was your run this morning?" Angela asked amusedly. Maura walked confidently directly out of Jane's bedroom dressed in a skirt and blouse combo and smiled widely at Angela.

"Ooh, Angela, you look beautiful!" Maura exclaimed brightly. "And I love your shoes!" The ME pointed down to Angela's feet, and the Rizzoli matriarch was sufficiently distracted.

"Thank you! I haven't worn heels in such a long time," Angela laughed and clicked her feet together.

"Oh! Remind me when we get back home to give you an extra pair of gel inserts that I have. I can wear heels all day in those," Maura smiled.

"Yeah, and she _does_ wear heels all day," Jane rolled her eyes. "You know, I have a trick for wearing heels too!" Angela and Maura looked at her, impressed and expectant. "...Don't wear them." She joked and the other two women rolled their eyes.

"Can't you just be nice?" Angela sassed to her daughter.

"I _am _being nice…" Jane shrugged. "I'm going shopping with the two of you."

"Because you lost a bet," Maura teased.

"I did _not _lose, Maura, we ended the game with a draw." Jane poked Maura in the shoulder and the ME smacked her hand away. "I'm gonna go change."

They continued to bicker, much to Angela's amusement, all the way to one of Maura's favorite streets. It was filled with high-class stores and dozens of street vendors.

"I can't wait to add to your wardrobe!" Maura essentially squealed as they walked down the street.

"Can we at least stop for a hotdog? I'm starving!" Jane pouted and pointed to a nearby food truck. Maura turned and grimaced.

"You know, hot dogs are made from the gonads, intestines, and eyeballs of hoofed animals," Maura laughed as Jane glanced back at the food truck in disgust.

"Yeah… I guess we'll just go shopping then." Jane muttered and shoved Maura in the shoulder and laughed. Joking with Jane was one of her favorite things in the world.

"Come on, Detective, the first stop is in here," Maura smiled and Angela clapped in excitement.

"F-first stop?" Jane choked out. "How many stops _are _there?" Maura just grinned mischievously and held the door open for Jane, gesturing with one hand that the Detective should enter the shop and Angela chuckled. Maura happily followed a grumbling Jane into the shop and immediately brightened, she saw at least twelve dresses that would look good on Jane. "Oh, come on Maura, none of these are gonna look good on me," The Detective complained.

"Jane, you'd look like a goddess even in a paper bag," Maura complimented and Jane blushed.

"Yeah, and I'd _rather_ wear a paper bag," Jane snarked back.

"Oh, come on, Jane, you'll have to try _some _things on," Angela argued.

"No, _God_, Ma, look at _that!"_ Jane pointed to a particularly floral dress and then pointedly glanced at the price tag.

"Jane, ignore the prices, you lost the bet which means _I _get to purchase your clothes," Maura waved her off and continued to speak over the Detective's protests. "Jane Rizzoli, we can do this the easy way or the hard way," Maura threatened as she pulled a few dresses out of their places. Jane crossed her arms and glared at Maura as the blonde used her head to indicate to the dressing room. "Alright, the hard way," Maura decided and she hung the dresses in the changing room and then moved to grab Jane's arm. The Detective tried to escape Maura's hold and was surprised when she couldn't release herself from the ME's grasp. Angela clasped Jane's shoulders from behind and helped to push Jane into the room.

"You need to ease up with the grip strengtheners there, Doctor Isles," Jane chided as the Doctor released her from her hold. Angela smiled and went to strike up a conversation with a shop attendant as Maura pulled Jane into the room and closed the door behind her.

"Oh, I can think of a few activities you might enjoy where my hand strength and dexterity might be… enjoyable," Maura bit her lip and stepped into Jane's personal space.

"M-Maura!" Jane was shocked to feel the ME's hands pulling the blouse loose from Jane's slacks.

"What?" Maura asked innocently. "I'm simply helping you to try on all of these dresses."

"You're doing a _helluva_ lot more than that!" Jane stated. Maura just smirked up at Jane and captured the Detective's lips in a searing kiss and Jane couldn't help but respond to it. After months of pining after the small blonde woman, it was all Jane could do to keep her hands to herself. "Mmm-Maura, what if somebody walks in, my Ma is out there, what if she knows-"

"Knows what? That two women entered a change room to try on dresses? Friends do that sort of thing all the time according to American Television," Maura defended and Jane laughed.

"You're adorable… and _nuts!_" Jane finished and Maura rolled her eyes. "Would you stop that?" Jane smacked Maura's hands off of her shirt; the Doctor had somehow gotten most of the buttons undone without Jane even noticing. "I can do it myself," Jane went to remove her shirt and smirked over at the heavy-lidded blonde. "You just gonna stand there and watch, Doctor Isles?" She asked, repeating the blonde's question from the night before they decided to officially date.

"Yep," Maura quoted Jane's response and the Detective raised an eyebrow as she slowly undid the rest of her buttons and removed her shirt. Maura's eyes flickered down to Jane's plain black bra and then to the abdominal muscles below_. _The Doctor licked her lips while she longed to taste the exposed flesh before her. Jane continued to teasingly undress. She slowly undid her belt and unzipped her pants, she stepped out of her shoes and tauntingly eased the black slacks down her long, muscular legs. Maura audibly gulped and Jane stood at her full height with a hand on her hip.

"Alright, which one of these torture devices should I try on first?" Jane asked, pointing to the dozen or so dresses Maura had picked out. The women began a terrible game of Maura caressing Jane's body while she helped the Detective into a dress and then Jane, slowly, teasingly, removing the article of clothing while refusing to let Maura help. They were both pink-cheeked and breathing raggedly by the time Jane had tried on the last thing Maura had picked out. It was a very form-fitting black dress and it hugged the brunette's frequently hidden curves well. Maura let her eyes linger over Jane's cleavage and hummed appreciatively at the way the dress clung to the other woman.

"You'll get that one," Maura decided.

"What, I don't get a say?" Jane teased before she turned to look at herself in the mirror, surprised by how well the dress fit her. "Wow," was all she could think so say about herself. Jane caught Maura checking out her ass in the mirror and turned to point it out but found that instead, she wanted Maura to continue. The Detective stepped forward, this time invading Maura's personal space and backed the Doctor up into the wall of the dressing room. Jane placed a hand on the wall next to each side of Maura's hips and the ME's heavy-lidded eyes flickered up to Jane's lips; asking a silent question. Jane leaned in and kissed the Doctor, quickly dragging her tongue across the plump bottom lip below her. Maura hummed as she opened her mouth to the kiss and she reached up to entangle her hands into Jane's wild curls. Jane removed her hand's from the wall and placed them firmly on either side of Maura's behind before she squeezed, eliciting a groan from the smaller woman.

"Janie," Angela rapped on the door. "Did you find anything yet?" The two women broke apart panting, they stared at each other in panic before they both broke out laughing. "What? What's so funny?" Angela called.

"Nothing, Ma!" Jane called through her laughter and walked out of the room.

"Wow!" Angela's eyes widened as Jane stepped out of the room. "That is one stunning little black dress!"

"You look beautiful," Maura murmured as she leaned on the doorframe of the change room.

"You guys, where am I gonna wear this?" Jane complained. "A murder at the Ritz?"

"No, it _is _possible to go on dates you know!" Angela said accusingly. "Do you _remember _dates, Jane?" The Detective rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"I _go _on dates, Ma!" Jane sassed out.

"Oh yeah, with who?" Angela challenged as she crossed her arms. Jane chuckled nervously before she looked at Maura. All anxiety she had seeped out of her at she looked at the small blonde woman smiling at her. Whatever happened, Jane could feel in her heart that everything would be okay if Maura was with her. She smiled at her mother before she answered.

"...Wiiiiith… Maura?" Jane smiled guiltily toward her mother and Angela yelled in excitement as the ME walked toward Jane and grabbed the brunette's hand.

"I knew it!" Angela yelled and she pulled both women into a tight hug before she started jumping in place. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" She repeated excitedly and Maura laughed.

"Ma, calm down, Jesus," Jane chuckled out. "Okay, the group hug… I can't do it!" Jane started to squirm out of the grasp.

"I'm so happy for you, baby," Angela cooed out before she planted a kiss on Jane's cheek.

"I'm happy too, Ma," Jane said sweetly as the looked down into Maura's adoring face.

"Me too," Maura whispered sweetly before Jane leaned in to quickly and softly kiss the ME.

"I knew it," Angela repeated, "when did it start? Who asked who? Where are you gonna get married? Have you talked about adoption agencie-"

"Ma, you're gonna stop or we're going to leave," Jane threatened as Maura's eyes widened in panic.

"What?" Angela asked innocently, "you're not getting any younger!"

"Angela, it's far too soon to be thinking about babies or… or marriage…" Maura argued, tripping over the word 'marriage'. Jane looked at her strangely. Why would the ME struggle to say 'marriage?'

"Marriage scarier than babies, Maur?" Jane asked sarcastically. Maura nervously chuckled and shook her head as if she were trying to clear it.

"Something like that," Maura ominously stated. Angela just chuckled and left to inform the salesclerk that they'd be taking the black dress.

"I figured you'd be the kind to be all over wedding fantasy nonsense," Jane nudged her with her elbow. Maura shrugged off the comment so Jane urged her on by making up the most un-Maura wedding fantasy she could think of. "I had this dumb idea that I would… say my vows at Fenway over home plate in a Red Sox jersey… and we would have the reception on the pitcher's mound and we would serve foot-long hotdogs and frozen lemonade… and the guest would throw peanuts at us instead of rice." Jane looked down at Maura in embarrassment and they broke out into laughter.

"That's not dumb," Maura chuckled out, "it's not exactly _elegant _but at least it's colorful… A Red Sox jersey?"

"You are in _my _fantasy, you _cannot _tell me what to wear!" Jane snarked and laughed. "What would _yours _be?" Jane poked.

"... If I _were_ interested in being married…" Maura started carefully, "I would have, uh, hazelnut almond, chocolate ganache and _maybe _mocha buttercream cake. My gown would be silk charmeuse with an empire waist and a twenty-foot train, and the ceremony would be in the cliffs of Santorini, right above a volcano," Maura finished with an amused smile at Jane's clear disbelief.

"What if the volcano erupts, Pointdexter?" Jane sassed.

"Oh, I'd check for seismic activity," Maura stated as if it should have been obvious.

"Of course," Jane rolled her eyes and Maura laughed. "Well it sure _sounds _like you've thought about being married," Jane tried to joke, but Maura's face hardened at the comment instead.

"Jane, I… I can't-"

"Are you girls ready to go?" Angela interrupted.

"Yes!" Maura brightened at the escape of the current conversation and Jane looked after the two women in confusion before she turned back into the change room to get dressed in her suit. Jane supposed it was possible Maura was just nervous about Angela broaching the subject of marriage so early in their relationship. Maura's own mother wasn't the type to bring such things up, after all.

The rest of their shopping trip was spent with Angela and Maura gushing over outfits that would look good on Jane while Jane followed the two women around tiredly, complaining over ruffles and pink, or how much of her cleavage would be hanging out of most of the clothes. By the time Maura was done, Jane had several new blazers and slacks that fit her form infinitely better than her current 'off the rack' selection. Maura also bought her several blouses to go along with her new work clothes.

"You don't think anyone will notice how expensive these are, do you?" Jane quietly asked her mother.

"Why does that matter?" Angela countered. "You deserve the best."

"Yes, she does," Maura agreed sweetly.

"But do these suits _deserve _to be shot at and splattered in blood and-"

"No cop-talk! It's a shopping day!" Angela chastised.

"_Sopping day_ is over, Ma," Jane sassed and rolled her eyes. "I don't even have any more room in my wardrobe so…" Jane smiled winningly.

"I could buy you a new wardro-"

"Don't you _dare," _Jane pointed her finger accusingly at Maura and glared at her before her mother got any ideas to support the smaller woman. "I haven't eaten all day, I'm _starving_, Maura!" Jane complained whiningly.

"True, and after such rigorous physical activity from this morning you should fill up on healthy calories... I'm going to make you eat something green for lunch,"

"Okay, I'll get extra pickles on my burger," Jane joked and winked at Maura, who reached over and pinched Jane's arm. "Ow!"

"Oh!" Angela's eyes widened suddenly and she blushed. "...No wonder Maura wasn't ready when I walked into your apartment this morning…"

"Ma!" Jane yelled, embarrassed.

"Yes, it might be prudent for you to start knocking, Angela," Maura commented, unashamed, causing both of the Rizzoli women to blush furiously. "So, where are we going for lunch?" Maura asked.

* * *

"Hey Janie, what's up" Frankie called from across the Dirty Robber. "Hey Maur, hey Ma, what are you guys doing here?" Frankie hugged his mother and smiled at Maura. "Come sit with us," He gestured to a booth that Frost was sitting in and the other detective nodded toward the group. "Who are you dressed as?" Frankie looked at Jane's new suit that Maura and Angela made her change into.

"A person… _shut up" _Jane smacked the back of his head as they approached the table.

"I think you look nice." Frost offered with a smile.

"Thank you," Jane said seriously. Frankie looked at Frost like he'd just betrayed him and Frost shrugged innocently.

"Who knew you owned anything Armani," Frost teased and Frankie snorted.

"You think she owned _that _before today?" Frankie laughed.

"Maura!" Jane glared blamingly at the smaller woman who smiled brightly.

"What?" Maura asked innocently, "you look beautiful," Maura shrugged.

"Yes you do, babe," Angela agreed before she smacked Frankie on the back of the head. "Leave your sister alone!" She growled at her son.

"Yeah, at least she's got style… is that suit from the Korsak collection?" Frost tugged on Frankie's sleeve teasingly.

"Riley liked it… She said it gave me a young Al Pacino vibe," Frankie defended himself.

"Who's Riley?" Angela asked and Frankie immediately regretted spilling his guts.

"Uhh, just… a friend," He said lamely.

"Uh-huh, the kind of friend you go on dates with?" Jane asked teasingly.

"I don't know, Jane is _Maura _the kind of friend you go on dates with?" Frankie asked snarkily back.

"Hey!" Jane stood up angrily at her brother. "I didn't tell _you know who _about your stupid _crush!_" Jane yelled. "And Ma knows, you asshole."

"Jane!" Angela and Maura chastised together and Frost laughed.

"What?" Jane sassed, "if we hadn't told you we were dating earlier, Frankie would have just outed us to you. _He _should know how not cool that is." Jane glared at her brother who was glaring right back.

"Why would Frankie know how not cool that is?" Frost asked. Frankie's demeanor changed from hostile to pleading immediately. Jane set her jaw tightly and raised an eyebrow at her little brother. She had all the cards right now and could absolutely play a winning hand, but when it came to playing with her little brother, she would always fold. She sat calmly down again and took a breath before she looked Frost in the eye.

"...Because he knows how hard it was for me to come to terms with, um… being into Maura?" Jane lied and Frankie visibly relaxed.

"Jane, I didn't know it was so difficult for you to come to terms with your sexuality," Maura mused out loud.

"Oh, Janie's always been private about that kind of thing," Angela waved off.

"Yeah," Frankie added. "She's also always been a good sister," he admitted with an apologetic smile.

"You bet your ass, brother," Jane nudged him with her elbow.

"Sibling relationships are incredibly odd," Maura stated from her seat.

"You're telling me," Frost agreed, eyeing Frankie in confusion.

"Alright, Jane Goodall, you can study us some other time, I'm gonna die if I don't have a burger in front of my face in the next five minutes," Jane complained again.

"With a side salad?" Maura asked casually. Jane rolled her eyes and nodded causing everyone else at the table to laugh. Frost continued to eye Frankie suspiciously and the younger Rizzoli pretended not to notice. Frankie had decided to go out on dates to try to forget about his feelings for his best friend.

* * *

Maura opened up Jane's wardrobe and gasped in shock.

"Now I understand why you always look like this!" Maura scoffed at the dull blacks and greys that were filling the wardrobe in front of her.

"Excuse me?" Jane asked in an offended tone.

"You have _nothing_ to wear!" Maura turned to look at Jane as if she pitied the other woman for having such a dull closet.

"What do you mean? I _just _did all my laundry!" Jane gestured to the empty laundry basket and pointed into her closet.

"Oh my God," Maura all but gasped in horror. "It's a good thing I took you shopping before I had to wear your clothes for a week," Maura reached for the higher class items that Jane had tossed onto a chair in the corner of the room but Jane smacked her hand.

"I don't think so!" Jane sassed. "You have to pick from the wardrobe." Jane pointed to her older clothes as she stared the smaller woman down.

"But what if I just-"

"The _wardrobe, _Maura!" Jane snarked out and Maura pouted further. Jane tried not to focus on how adorable the ME looked in her matching bra and panty set as she decided which of Jane's clothes were the least horrific.

She ended up choosing a simple pinstriped pantsuit but had to roll up the sleeves to just below her elbows so that the tops would fit her. She was pleasantly surprised that Jane's pants were tight enough to show off the curves of her legs.

"Can I at least wear my heels?" Maura pleaded, holding the shoes up with an adorable pout.

"Yeah, but only because I can't tackle a perp in those monstrosities and I only have one pair of my boots," Jane sassed. The Detective donned on one of her new red blouses and one of her new suits. She looked down at herself and rolled her eyes, causing Maura to scoff. She grinned as Maura walked away, glad that she could so easily tease the blonde.

They had to park a couple of blocks away from the precinct and as they walked over to the building Maura got hit on by two separate women.

"Okay, I'm calling it off, I need to get you out of those clothes," Jane complained.

"Mmm, in the workplace, Detective? Who knew you were so adventurous," Maura all but purred as she leaned into Jane's body.

"What? No, I meant because I don't want anybody else hittin- Wait, you're just totally fine with having sex in the workplace?" Jane's thought process immediately switched from protective to surprised arousal. Maura quirked an eyebrow up at Jane and smiled mischievously before she walked confidently into the precinct. "Jesus…" Jane said before she shook her head and followed.

"Did you know that over fourteen percent of Americans have had sex at work?" Maura spoke loudly, garnering several looks from the people of the precinct. "And surveys suggest that even more individuals are _interested_ in having intercourse in the workplace."

"I didn't ask how many _individuals_ were interested in workplace sex, Maur, I asked if _you_ were," Jane pointed as she murmured lowly so that only Maura would hear. They approached their respective elevators and Maura grinned up at the Detective with a slight blush. They kissed briefly as the doors opened.

"There's only one way to find out," Maura sensually murmured before she left Jane, stunned once more, standing in the hallway as Maura's elevator door closed.

"_Jesus,_" Jane repeated as the 'ding' from her elevator indicated that she had to go to work. She cleared her throat and stepped onto the elevator while she tried to calm her breathing and her libido. She was mostly successful.

"Nice suit, Janie," Korsak commented from his desk. Jane smirked and decided to strike a Frost-like pose, causing both Korsak and Frost himself to laugh. She did like the clothes Maura had picked out for her. They fit and felt nice and even though they were made with high-value labels attached, they weren't exactly flashy.

"Did you rehaul your entire closet, Rizzoli?" Frost asked. He'd always liked fashion and finer clothes, like Maura.

"Uhh, no, I still have all my old stuff," Jane shrugged.

"So that's code to say that Maura bought it all for you, right?" Korsak laughed as Jane's face flushed.

"Yeah, we did lose the ballgame, remember?" Jane rolled her eyes and sat in her chair.

"Oh yeah!" Frost said excitedly. "So is Maura wearing your clothes all week?"

"Hell no!" Jane said a bit aggressively, causing her team to jump slightly. "We walked three blocks to work and _two_ different women hit on her. _While_ I was standing there!" Jane explained and the men laughed at her clear anger.

"I'm surprised you didn't try to arrest them," Korsak joked.

"Oh, I wanted to," Jane grumbled.

"So I guess you want her out of your clothes as soon as possible," Frost said innocently. Jane's face flushed further and she rubbed her face in her hands. The jealousy that she'd felt after those women had hit on Maura and the feeling of arousal the ME had awakened in her with her sly comments had Jane frustrated beyond belief. She tried to focus on the paperwork on her desk and valiantly tried to read the words on her computer screen but her mind kept painting images of a sweaty, panting Doctor writhing on the desk before her. Images of Maura in her lab coat and nothing else filled her mind. Jane jumped at the sudden calling of her name.

"Rizzoli!" Her Lieutenant called from the doorway of his office. "Get Doctor Isles up here and meet me in my office in ten," He said with his usual serious air of finality. Jane looked over to Korsak to see if he had answers but the older man simply shrugged and shook his head.

"Yes, sir," Jane called back before the took out her cellphone to text the ME.

**The LT wants us both in his office in 10 minutes… IDK why. - J**

Jane snorted loudly at Maura's almost immediate reply.

**I hate it when you use acronyms. - M**

Jane, Frost, and Korsak nearly jumped out of their skin when Maura spoke suddenly; nobody had heard her enter and it became clear why when they looked up. The usually pristine Doctor had forgone changing back into Jane's clothes and was wearing her black autopsy scrubs and her running shoes. Jane chuckled at the vision before her.

"What?" Maura asked as Jane's eyes ran over her clothing. "You _said _you wanted me out of your clothes as soon as possible," Maura reasoned and Frost chuckled at the fact that his assumption had been correct.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just used to you looking like a trash collector _only _in the morgue," Jane joked as she indicated to Maura's scrubs.

"I think these make me look like a garbage collector too!" Maura said excitedly, which made the group of detectives laugh. "Did you figure out why the Lieutenant wants to see us?"

"No," Jane shook her head and stood so she could murmur the rest into Maura's ear. "Maybe he heard you ask me to have sex with you at work," Jane smirked as she pulled away.

"Jane," Maura responded loud enough for anyone to hear, "I did not technically ask you to have s-"

Jane clamped a hand over Maura's mouth to stop the ME from finishing her sentence and hastily shushed the Doctor. Maura stuck her tongue out to lick Jane's hand and Jane shouted out in surprised disgust.

"Aren't you worried you'll get some weird bacteria or flu or whatever?" Jane asked as she wiped her hand on her pants.

"No, you've likely only touched the elevator buttons and your keyboard. I had representative sample tests done and bacteria fell within acceptable limits." Maura smiled.

"It must be very complicated to be you," Jane teased.

"You have no idea," Maura confirmed. Frost had watched the entire exchange with a slight smile on his face. He wanted to find someone to joke around with like that. "Come on, Detective," Maura said as she pulled Jane toward their meeting.

Twenty minutes later, Jane and Maura emerged with twin smiles on their faces. They were being sent to a hotel in DC for a week so that they could do several presentations together about how important it is for Homicide Departments to work closely with and listen to the Medical Examiners and their teams. They were essentially being offered an all-expenses-paid week-long getaway in exchange for dedicating three hours a day to presentations where they would talk about how great it was to work together. Needless to say, they were both ecstatic at the offer and accepted immediately.

Jane played it off as a work thing so as not to elicit jealousy in her team but the men saw right through her ruse and teased her relentlessly for the remainder of the week.

* * *

**A nice getaway for our ladies coming up. :) **


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey, y'all! Sorry for the delay in my writing. I had to move houses and then I found out that the store I work for is closing and I have to find a new job and maybe a new place to live, so life's been keeping me pretty busy. But enough of my drama here's some cute fluff and smut to serve as a wonderful distraction.**

* * *

Jane rolled her eyes as Maura popped the trunk of her car open. The Detective had packed a single bag for their weeklong stay at the hotel in DC but it seemed the ME had other ideas.

"Jesus, Maura!" Jane scoffed as she looked at the two suitcases and three duffel bags that had been neatly placed in the ME's car. "You know we're just staying here for a week, right? How do you expect to carry all of this up to our room? If you brought your scuba gear, I swear to God…" Jane poked fun in her usual sarcastic manner.

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared… I don't know what we'll be doing while we're here," Maura smiled simply and waved down a bellhop to help with the luggage. "Can you please take these up to room 1216?" Maura smiled politely at the young man and handed him a folded bill. Jane refused to look at how much Maura had just tipped the young man, but she did see his eyes widen before he nodded profusely.

"Let me take yours as well!" He tugged Jane's bag out of her hand and added it to the trolley before he began to push it to their room.

"Uhh, thank you?" Jane called after him but he was already too far away to hear her. "_Never _tell me how much you tipped that guy," Jane joked and Maura chuckled.

"Only a reasonable amount... " Maura guiltily stated. "Especially if you consider that we're not paying for anything this week! Unless we go out to dinner, of course.."

"Is that a hint that you want me to take you to dinner?" Jane smirked down at the ME before reaching out to hold her hand.

"Perhaps _I'll _be the one to take _you _out to dinner," Maura smiled and Jane leaned down to kiss her.

"As long as I get to eat with you, I don't care who takes who," Jane winked.

"Whom," Maura corrected and Jane rolled her eyes largely. "What I meant to say... is that's a very sweet thing to say," Maura corrected herself and they both laughed as they made their way into the hotel. The foyer was large and the patrons of the establishment were a much higher class than Jane would have thought.

"Damn, I can't _believe _people's tax dollars are paying for us to be here right now…" Jane ran a guilty hand through her hair as she took in the lavish furniture and chandeliers.

"If we hadn't been the two employees chosen to represent BPD, I'm sure other people would have replaced us, so there's no need to feel guilty, Jane," Maura reasoned.

"Yeah, but-"

"Can you imagine if Doctor Pike and Detective Crowe got to invited instead?" Maura looked pointedly at Jane and the Detective laughed.

"Okay, I guess I can understand why we were sent," Jane admitted and Maura smiled.

"What would you like to do first?" Maura asked as they approached the elevator that would take them to the twelfth floor. Jane grinned down at the smaller woman and grabbed her hand.

"I got some ideas," she shrugged at Maura's curious look and refused to indulge the ME in any of her questions.

"Well, okay," Maura began teasingly, "I guess if you don't have any actual plans I'll have to sign us up for the hotel's complimentary yoga sessions…"

"Don't you dare," Jane chided and Maura giggled. They walked into their room and both raised their eyebrows in surprise for very different reasons. Jane ignored the room completely and walked over to the window to look out at the expanse of the city below them. Maura took in the incredibly minimal accommodations and regretted letting Jane talk her out of paying for a better room. Jane turned around to comment on the view and laughed at Maura as she was clearly trying to cover up the fact that she hated the room. The small blonde was staring intently at a rather terrible and fake painting that was hung above the bed. "Oh, come on, Maur, just say whatever you're thinking," Jane chuckled.

"Jane, do you even know what this is?" Maura pointed to the painting.

"Uhh… not art?" Jane guessed.

"_Not _art," Maura verified before she grimaced. "I could easily go down and get us a better room. With actual rooms and… complimentary baskets with d'Anjou pears and a nice prosecco and gourmet chocolates and maybe spa stuff!" Maura ranted and Jane smiled. She couldn't help but find the smaller woman's oddities endearing.

"We're not even going to be spending a lot of time in here, it's fine," Jane argued amusedly.

"We're not?" Maura asked with a pout. "Guess I could have packed one less bag," she muttered.

"... What bag?" Jane walked over to the trolley of their belongings and started trying to guess, causing Maura to chuckle and walk over to stop the Detective's hunting.

"You'll find out later," Maura leaned up to kiss Jane and then began to pull the taller woman back out of the room. "Come on, Detective,"

"Where are we going? We just got here," Jane complained as she was dragged along by the smaller woman, looking back and trying to guess the contents hidden behind zippers.

"I feel like Italian," Maura stated as she pulled Jane back out into the hallway.

"I'm right here, Maur," Jane smirked and Maura laughed at the lame joke.

They made their way back down to the lobby of the building and a concierge quickly directed them into the dining portion of the hotel. Jane moved to pull Maura's chair out for her and the blonde smiled at her dazzlingly. Jane loved it when Maura looked at her like that. She'd never felt so valued in her life. She helped to push in Maura's chair before taking her seat and they were brought menus.

"This place is surprisingly fancy… it looks like a four-star restaurant here," Jane commented as Maura perused her options for wine.

"Yes, I'm pleasantly surprised," Maura agreed. "Their wine selection is quite good as well."

"Quite good, huh?" Jane teased from across the table. "Well, I'll trust your judgment and get the same wine you're getting… and I'll get the kale salad to eat."

"You're going to eat kale? Without me even prompting you to eat healthily?" Maura put her hand up to her chest in amused surprise and Jane rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but I'm having curly fries for dessert," the brunette stated and Maura laughed.

"Of course you are," Maura smiled from across the table and the waiter came to take their order. Jane noticed that the workers were especially attentive to their table and suspected that word had gotten out that Maura was a _really_ good tipper. They were interrupted by a man walking up to their table with his arms held out wide.

"Jane Rizzoli? I can't believe it!" He smiled down at the brunette and Jane jumped out of her chair to embrace the man.

"Jake? Oh my God, I haven't seen you since… uh… for a while," Jane stammered over her words and Maura noticed a slight blush begin to make an appearance on the Detective's cheeks. "Uhh, this is Doctor Maura Isles," Jane gestured to Maura and the blonde stuck her hand out politely.

"Nice to meet you," Jake shook her hand and immediately turned his attention back to Jane, taking a seat at their table. "I heard you made Detective as soon as you graduated," he blatantly flirted.

"Not quite," Jane humbly responded and waved him off. "Frankie told me you're running your task force for the Enrico case. That's cool," Jane complimented him back and the man smiled at her, completely ignoring Maura.

"Yeah… hey listen, I have to run but I'd love to catch up later… can I buy you a drink this week?" Jake stood and stepped a little closer to Jane than Maura would have preferred and the ME felt a rare feeling of acidity rise in her stomach.

"It would be nice to catch up," Jane smiled back politely, apparently oblivious to the man's clear advances. Maura breathed through her anger at the man and bit her cheek as he pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to Jane. The ME couldn't help but notice that Jake's pupils dilated as he looked at Jane and that he was giving off clear signs of interest. It irked her slightly that Jane hadn't introduced her as her girlfriend. The man was tall and muscular and quite good looking. Maura's internal dialogue was interrupted by the brunette.

"Man, I haven't seen that guy since I was at the academy," Jane laughed. "Ten years sure does go by fast."

"Mhmm," Maura agreed with a forced brightness as the waiter served their food. "Were you close?" Maura asked as casually as she could, noticing a blush raise on Jane's cheeks again.

"Yeah, pretty close I guess," Jane shrugged.

"So you dated, then?" Maura pressed.

"No, not really," Jane said around a bite of salad. "I mean, we went out a few times and… you know, hung out, but we never actually dated," Jane spoke casually and it calmed Maura slightly to hear the brunette speak so indifferently about him. Jane and Maura continued to eat and the Detective knew that something was bothering the ME but wasn't sure what it was. They finished their meal in a loaded silence and as they walked through the halls of the hotel, Jane found that she could no longer tolerate the lack of conversation.

"Alright, Maura," Jane turned to face the smaller woman and rolled her eyes. "You gonna tell me what's wrong?"

"… Stomachache," Maura stated lamely as she glanced away from Jane's gaze.

"You don't _have _stomachaches… You have gastro-stomachopolitis-aches…" Jane looked pointedly at the ME until the smaller woman broke.

"Why did you introduce me as Doctor Isles instead of Maura, your girlfriend?" Maura asked with forced casualness.

"Because… we're at a work-related event in this hotel and you're an esteemed doctor? You worked hard to get the title, I figured you would want to be perceived as the good, professional woman that you are on your own, instead of being seen as, you know, _just_ my girlfriend." Jane shrugged after her explanation and Maura softened at how thoughtful Jane was. "Is that what's bothering you?"

"No, that's actually very sweet of you, I'm just… I feel silly… I feel..." Maura paused to think. "I don't like him."

"Who, Jack?" Jane scrunched up her face in confusion. "But he's so nice…" Jane gasped suddenly and smirked at the blonde. "Doctor Isles, are you jealous?"

"What? _No!_" Maura argued way too forcefully and her chest flushed.

"You're gonna get hives, Maur," Jane pointed to the other woman's skin, amused that even the ever professional Doctor Maura Isles experienced jealousy.

"I'm simply having a natural evolutionary reaction that is motivating me to protect a union that I believe is valuable," Maura defended the way she was feeling and Jane chuckled down at the smaller woman. Jane bit her bottom lip as she smiled and couldn't help but love the ME impossibly more. Jane found Maura's attempt to science her way out of jealousy to be endearing.

"You're cute when you're jealous," Jane said and she leaned down to kiss the ME.

"Am I?" Maura grinned guiltily up at Jane, feeling rather silly that she was behaving the way she was.

"Yeah, but you're cute all the time, so I shouldn't be surprised," Jane smirked down at the ME and Maura smiled back.

"I think I might be able to stand to be in our room for a while…" Maura murmured as she pulled on the lapels of Jane's blazer.

"Oh yeah?" Jane asked.

"Mhmm," Maura nodded. "Give me ten minutes and then meet me up there," Maura kissed Jane again and waited for a reply. The ME wasn't normally the one to take charge in situations such as these. Jane drew her eyebrows together and squinted suspiciously toward the smaller woman.

"Bossy," Jane pointed over to Maura before she followed the instruction, causing Maura to chuckle.

"You have _no _idea," Maura muttered. The ME made her way up to their room and walked over to the bags. Maura brought one of them to the table and gazed into it, unsure of which route she wanted to take. She had so many options. She reached in to feel her lacy corset and then moved over to feel the silk she'd also packed. She eyed the box she'd tossed in and shuddered as she thought about the contents within it. She decided that it would be more appropriate to at least talk to Jane about those particular contents before putting them in use, so she disrobed and eased the corset onto herself before she tied it in place. She pulled out the matching garters and eased the pantyhose over her legs, clipping them onto the bottom of her corset. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled at the effect the outfit had. She looked good and she knew it. She slipped her heels back onto her feet and sat primly on the edge of the bed, hoping that Jane would enjoy the outfit just as much. She took a steadying breath and waited.

"Thank _God_ those ten minutes are up, I was _so_ bored-" Jane complained as she entered but her words were cut off as she looked across the room towards the smirking blonde. "Wow… did I die while I was waiting because this has to be heaven… and also I waited long enough to be dead," Jane said and then internally cringed at her lame flirting. "Maura you look… you look… I feel underdressed," Jane looked down at her simple suit.

"You look far too overdressed to me," Maura uncrossed her legs and tilted her head to the bed to indicate that Jane should join her. Jane slowly made her way over to the bed and stood in front of Maura, staring admirably down at the smaller woman. "You're beautiful," Maura smiled up at Jane and the Detective blushed. "I feel unbelievably lucky that you chose to be my friend and even more lucky that your feelings for me grew beyond that," Maura reached up to hold Jane's hands and the brunette smiled lovingly down at her. "You're the most amazing person I've ever known."

"I think I'm the lucky one, Maur," Jane mumbled out and Maura shook her head with a lopsided smile. She still couldn't believe that Jane saw herself as anything less than the amazing woman she was.

"You're about to be lucky," Maura attempted to flirt and Jane tilted her head back to laugh.

"It's '_get' _lucky, Maura," Jane corrected and Maura shrugged.

"Whatever," the blonde continued to smile up at Jane but her hands moved to the Detective's belt. She undid the buckle and zipper and the slacks fell loosely down around Jane's ankles so the Detective stepped out of them and kicked them to the side. Her underwear was quick to follow. Maura rubbed a slow path up the outsides of Jane's thighs and cupped the muscles of her firm ass before she pulled the detective into a straddling position over her legs. Jane hummed pleasantly as Maura's soft hands lifted to push the blazer away from Jane's shoulders, the article falling to the floor. "This too," Maura said as she tugged at the bottom of Jane's blouse.

"If you insist," Jane murmured before she pulled the material off of herself, leaving her in her most common black bra that Maura never got tired of looking at despite its simplicity.

"I love you like this," Maura said as she caressed Jane's ribs.

"What, naked and on top of you?" Jane snarked out, trying to cover up the fact that she was blushing at Maura's use of the word 'love.' Maura chuckled and shook her head.

"That too," Maura conceded as she massaged a slow trail up Jane's back. "But I meant I love that I get to see you like this… just Jane. My Jane, not Detective Rizzoli the badass or Janie the amazing sister-"

"Really gonna bring my family up right now, huh-?" Jane's interruption made Maura laugh more.

"I love that I get to see every version of you… not just the ones you want everyone else to see," Maura said and then unclasped Jane's bra, adding it to the pile on the ground. "I get to see every side of you, Jane, and I love them all," Maura smiled up at her and the Detective gazed gently back.

"All of them?" She asked in disbelief. "Even groggy, no coffee grouch Jane?"

"Every single one," Maura nodded and took hold of Jane's face to bring the Detective into a searing kiss.

"That's really good news for me, Maur, because I'm pretty sure I fell in love with you the second I saw you analyzing our first crime scene," Jane flushed at her admittance but Maura beamed at her response.

"You love me?" Maura asked, awestruck that such a kind, gentle, brash and sarcastic, endlessly fun person would ever love her. She couldn't believe that someone not only dealt with her oddities but seemed to embrace and enjoy them.

"_So_ much," Jane smiled. "I love your brain, your goofiness, even your Google-mouth… especially your Google-mouth," Jane joked. "Maura, I love everything about you."

"I hadn't planned on saying this while I was wearing lingerie with you naked and on top of me…" Maura glanced down at their outfits or lack thereof. Jane laughed.

"Is there a better way?" Jane joked and Maura joined her in the laughter until she became too distracted by the beautiful body above her. Jane began to trace the slightly frilly edge of the corset that encased Maura's cleavage. She'd seen the blonde naked many times but something about the barrier the lingerie was making and the overall effect it was having on Jane's body left her with a desire that was almost burning.

Maura's hands gently rubbed a path up Jane's thighs, around to her backside and then back down. She repeated the action several times, getting closer and closer to Jane's core each time, teasing the brunette straddling her. The muscles in Jane's legs began to tense slightly and Maura glanced from Jane's dilated eyes to see how aroused she was making the brunette. The ME caressed her path closer than ever to Jane's core but and the very last moment she changed to an upward direction and used her nails to scratch a path up Jane's ribs until she could cup the brunette's breasts. Jane quivered under the touch and Maura smirked, knowing exactly how she was making Jane feel. The Detective grumbled at the teasing lack of friction and Maura flashed a catlike grin.

"Patience will be rewarded, Detective," she raised an eyebrow and Jane nodded ever so slightly so she leaned up to kiss the brunette as her fingers traced taunting paths around Jane's hard nipples. Jane continued to tug at the seams of Maura's outfit so the blonde stopped all movement completely to place Jane's hands around her neck. "Keep your hands where they are," she stated sweetly but firmly, and she delighted in the shiver than ran down Jane's spine at the order. The Detective opened her mouth, intending to sass the ME but Maura put a finger to Jane's lips and shook her head. Jane breathily groaned in frustration and leaned her head back. Maura took full advantage of her position and started to nip and suck at Jane's neck, eliciting wonderful hums of appreciation from the other woman.

Jane obediently rested her arms around Maura's neck and tried to control her body's reaction to Maura's touch. She struggled to keep her breathing under control as Maura's hair tickled a path down her abdomen as the blonde moved slowly down to pull one of Jane's breasts into the heat of her mouth.

Maura used every second of the encounter to her advantage as she slowly teased Jane's chest with her mouth and grazed her hands in small circles along the brunette's inner thighs. By the time Maura was satisfied with her efforts, Jane felt like an eternity of torture had passed. She couldn't decide if she wanted it to stop or not. Every single one of her nerve endings seemed to be radiating with electricity as Maura amped her up and it took every ounce of self-control in her body not to pull Maura closer to her or grind her needy core down into the ME's body. Maura licked a trail up Jane's next and stopped the movements of her hands until Jane looked down and into her eyes.

Maura smirked and Jane bit her bottom lip, remembering that Maura told her to remain silent. Maura reached one hand up to the cleft in Jane's chin and she led the Detective down into a searing kiss. Jane felt Maura's other thumb lightly graze her clit and she moaned in pleasure at the friction she'd so desperately been craving. Maura repeated her action until Jane's legs were quivering and her breathing was ragged and desperate, only then did she dip her fingers lower into the wet heat of Jane's writhing body. Maura expertly circled the entrance to Jane's core before she used her thumb to double its efforts of Jane's clit. Jane groaned in both pleasure and frustration and Maura finally thrust two fingers into Jane.

Jane began to ride the fingers that had been so effortlessly teasing her and she felt waves of pleasure radiate from her core. Maura pumped her hand rhythmically into Jane's body and released the Brunette from their kiss so she could hear the sounds Jane made. Maura reached up behind Jane's back to pull at a handful of dark curls so that the Detective's long neck was exposed. Jane groaned in pleasure and Maura bit her earlobe before she licked and sucked a path down Jane's neck until she reached the other woman's pulse point, where she bit once more.

Having Maura be in such control was new for Jane but she found that she wanted nothing more than to follow the blonde woman's every whip so that the pleasure might continue. She wanted to please the blonde and receive pleasure in return. Being controlled, not with binds or position, but with words and rewards had Jane in a state of euphoria that she'd not yet had the pleasure of experiencing. When Maura reached up to pull her hair she felt the pressure building within her begin to plateau and she unabashedly moaned out the pleasure she felt as Maura bit her neck and her orgasm pounded through her entire body.

Jane cried out her bliss and it occurred to her how unique it was that Maura could make her feel so insatiably needy in arousal but valued and cherished at the same time. Her heart seemed to swell and grow within her just as the waves of pleasure did and she reveled in the fact that she could feel so loved and so well fucked in unison.

Maura removed her hand from Jane's core and began to reach for a conveniently placed towel that Jane hadn't previously noticed. Without breaking eye contact, Jane broke Maura's rules and grasped the blonde's wrist. Jane then drew the hand closer and enveloped Maura's fingers in her mouth. Maura exhaled heavily as Jane sucked and no longer had the willpower to chastise Jane for breaking the rules. She felt Jane bite down hard enough to elicit some pain, but it only compounded the pleasure that was already building within her. Maura heard a groan escaped her lips and her eyes fluttered at how easily Jane could take charge of any situation. Jane released her fingers and leaned down to murmur into Maura's ear.

"Am I allowed to touch you now?" Jane husked out and Maura could do nothing but nod. Jane used her body weight to push forward into Maura so that they were now laying on the bed. She settled her pelvis in between Maura's legs and immediately felt the blonde's hips thrust up into the pressure of her body.

"_God, _Jane…" Maura breathed out before the Detective stooped her head down to kiss the smaller woman. Maura tasted Jane in the kiss and she tangled her hands in Jane's hair to hold the Detective to her until the need for a proper air full of lungs was required. "Jane…" Maura tried to get the brunette's attention as she kissed Maura's neck. Jane hummed in response, seemingly too enveloped in Maura's body to be able to fully give attention to the words. "There's a box in my blue duffle bag… go… _Jesus_… go look in it and if you want to use what's in it on me, you can." Maura managed to speak through Jane's distractions and the brunette finally paused and moved to look curiously into Maura's heavy-lidded eyes. Curiosity got the best of Jane and she removed herself from the bed with a chaste kiss to the corner of Maura's mouth. Jane walked over to the blue bag on the table and her heart hammered wildly in her chest as she gazed down at the contents within it. There was another corset, a couple of silk négligés and silk scarves. Jane had to bite her lip to keep from groaning out loud at the images of Maura in the outfits that were fleeting through her head. She cleared her throat quietly and located the box. She opened the lid and found what she knew was a strapon. She'd been looking at them online but hadn't yet brought it up to Maura because the ME seemed to be the more sexually adventurous one of the two of them, so she had been waiting for Maura to broach the subject. It seemed she didn't need to wait any longer.

"You want me to wear this for you?" Jane glanced over to Maura who was still lying on the bed.

"Only if you want to…" Maura breathed out just loudly enough for Jane to hear. "Do… do you you want to?" Maura asked.

"_God_, yes," Jane responded and licked her lips before she took the box to the bathroom to make sure the toy was clean and to make sure the straps were properly sized to fit her.

Maura had watched with anticipation as Jane had rifled through the bag and was excited to see that Jane had so confidently taken the box to the washroom. She's anticipated Jane emerging from the bathroom sporting the strapon with ease and confidence, and Maura trembled slightly at the vision of the other woman from across the small room. Maura had expected Jane would be as confident in the bedroom as she was capable of being everywhere else but what she didn't expect was for Jane to pause by the duffle bag again and pull out two of the silk scarves that were hidden within it.

"What are you doing?" Maura asked in a low voice that she hardly recognized. Jane approached her and smirked down at the blonde before she copied Maura's earlier action and placed a simple finger to the blonde's lips. Maura whimpered slightly and Jane admired she tremble that ran through the ME's body. Jane settled herself once more in between Maura's legs and the blonde groaned at the feeling of the strapon pressing firmly against her core through her black lace panties. Maura instinctively reached around Jane's body to grip the firm muscles of the brunettes ass and press Jane's lithe form more securely to her own, but Jane once again caught Maura by the wrists and placed them firmly over Maura's head. Jane kissed Maura and by the time the brunette pulled away from the kiss, Maura realized that her wrists were tied in place together. She moved to pull her wrists down to check how securely Jane had tied her but she couldn't move her wrists from their position over her head; Jane had looped the scarf to the headboard as well.

"Tell me if you want me to stop, okay?" Jane whispered sweetly into Maura's ear and the smaller woman slowly nodded as she let Jane secure the second silk scarf around her eyes like a blindfold. "Is that ok?" Jane murmured and Maura shuddered before she nodded again.

Having visual stimuli removed from the equation seemed to amp up every one of Maura's other senses. Where she would usually admire Jane's dark curls, she could now only focus on the feeling of the hair tickling a path down her body. Maura felt Jane shift off of her and felt nothing for a moment, then she felt the hot breath of Jane exhaling in between her thighs. She felt Jane's cold nose caress her inner thigh before she felt hot, open-mouthed kisses replace the sensations. Maura felt Jane's hands slide along the pantyhose on her legs until she reached the clips that secured the garters to the corset. Jane easily unclipped one of the garters and then the other and she slowly, teasingly removed each of them from Maura's legs, dragging her fingernails slowly back up each of the now exposed legs until she reached Maura's soaked lace panties. Maura expected Jane to continue the slow torture so she gasped in surprise and arousal when instead, Jane simply tore the thin lace from her body. The slight pain that occurred at the action was nothing compared to the arousal that it caused and Maura quivered as she wondered what Jane might do next. Maura bit her lip to keep quiet but felt Jane hover over her once more.

"No, don't…" Jane said as she used a finger to trace Maura's lip. "I love the sounds you make," Jane finished and Maura felt Jane's lips hover over her own. She wanted to lift her head up to meet Jane in the kiss but she didn't know if she was allowed. She could do nothing but lay there, blindfolded with her hands tied above her head and wait to accept everything that Jane wanted to give her, and _God _did she want to. Instead of a kiss, she felt Jane blow a cool breath along her neck and she shivered; with cold or with arousal, she could no longer tell. She felt Jane's mouth leave wet and sloppy kisses down her neck and across her chest before she gasped at the feeling of Jane's teeth tugging at the corset. "It figures that the ever professional Doctor Isles would like getting tied up… losing control..." Jane began in a raspy voice that flared Maura's arousal, "... let me take control," Jane finished and Maura whimpered again as she nodded. Maura groaned as she felt Jane use the end of the strap on to tease her entrance. Jane guided the tip of it repeatedly over Maura's clit and the blonde moaned unashamedly.

Jane pressed the length of the strapon into Maura's body slowly and heard Maura sigh as Jane settled herself against the ME's body. Maura's legs immediately wrapped around Jane's waist and pulled the Detective even closer, making both of them moan at the feeling; Maura getting filled with the strapon and Jane grinding down into the friction offered by the small nubs that existed on the inner part of it, grazing her own sensitive clit. Jane pulled back just far enough to leave the tip of the strapon in Maura before she thrust forward into the blonde again. Maura moaned and tilted her head back into the bed below her. Jane loved it when Maura let go of control. The vision of the blonde's hair splayed messily below her and Maura's heavy breathing and heaving chest urged Jane to pull back and thrust forth again. Jane saw Maura's tongue poke out between her teeth to wet her lips and she was spurred on to continue. Jane began to gyrate her hips slowly into Maura at first and she slowly increased the speed in which the ground into and against Maura's core. Jane felt Maura's legs quiver and squeeze with each bound forward and she panted and moaned in unison with the smaller woman as their orgasms built together. The sound of Jane's grunts of exertion and the feeling of the hot breaths that caressed Maura's neck and chest had the blonde in a state of heightened arousal. Not being able to see anything was more exciting than she'd anticipated and she found she rather enjoyed it. She'd had several ideas for the scarves she'd packed but this hadn't been one of them. The feeling of Jane's strong body pounding into her as she felt tendrils of hair caress her chest sent her over the edge and into a satiated state of relaxation that she longed to stay in. The blindfold helped with that too. Jane slumped forward and they lay together on the bed as their breathing came back to normal.

Jane eased herself out of the blonde and unbuckled the straps that held the toy in place so she could remove it from herself. She reached up and pushed the silk scarf up off of Maura's eyes and smiled down at the brilliant green that was staring back at her.

"Your eyes are so beautiful," Jane heard herself saying and Maura smiled slightly.

"Can you untie me please so I can hold you?" Maura murmured and Jane obliged. She reached up and tugged one end of the scarf, causing the entire thing to loosen and unravel. Maura shivered as the sweat on her body began to cool and she shimmied up the bed until she could get under the covers. She grumbled and then unclasped her corset under the blankets before she threw the garment carelessly to the floor. Jane chuckled and climbed after the ME, laying beside the smaller woman until Maura embraced Jane from behind.

"I like it when you're the big spoon," Jane admitted.

"And I like that you let me do it," Maura replied sweetly with a kiss to Jane's shoulder.

"Well that works out," Jane joked and Maura rolled her eyes at Jane's need to use sarcasm to cover up the intimacy they shared. Maura shushed Jane and the brunette scoffed. "You did _not_ just shush me…"

"An inability to relax could result in a dangerous buildup of cortisol," Maura murmured tiredly.

"I want you to understand something," Jane began seriously, "I don't like being shushed. My _mother _shushes." She complained.

"Okay, well can you _please _stop talking so I can sleep?" Maura chuckled and squeezed Jane's body.

"How is _that _better?" The brunette snarked but quieted, content to have Maura embracing her so lovingly. Jane wiggled herself in closer to Maura and the ME reached up to grab one of Jane's hands. They both always slept better when the other was around.

* * *

"You're going to make us late!" Maura called from her position next to the door. She checked her watch again and glanced up to see Jane emerge from the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth, glancing around the room with her hands fumbling with the zipper of her slacks. "Your belt is under the bed," Maura gestured with her chin and Jane moved toward it.

"Whaffs i ooing vere?" Jane tried to speak around the toothbrush and Maura shook her head.

"I didn't pick it up after I undressed you… I assumed you didn't either," Maura explained as patiently as she could and she looked at her watch again. Jane chuckled and Maura thought she heard the Detective mumble a word similar to 'guess' but she couldn't be sure.

Maura double-checked that she had all of her notes and identification with her and then she moved to the table to make sure all of Jane's things were present and accounted for.

"I'm sure all my crap hasn't changed since the first fifty times you looked at it," Jane said as she walked out of the bathroom; finally ready in one of the suits Maura had bought her.

"I know, I just want to give a good presentation," Maura knew she was being over the top, but that was just who she was when it came to her work reputation.

"Have you ever given a single presentation that _wasn't _well-received?" Jane nudged Maura out of the way and picked up her pile of paperwork.

"Yes," Maura stated seriously, "in the third grade I gave an incredibly in-depth presentation on the human digestive system and Rachelle D. actually booed when I was done."

"Good to know you've always loved stomach contents," Jane joked. "You're not a bore-a anymore, this is going to be fun! We've been practicing all weekend, come on," Jane said and she ushered Maura out of the door of their room as if Maura had been the one making them alarmingly close to lateness.

"At least when we arrive after our scheduled slot it will be fashionable so," Maura said as they waited for the elevator to bring them up to the conference floor. "I think that's my favorite suit out of the ones I got you," she complimented Jane.

"Thanks, as monkey suits go, this one isn't as itchy as my old ones," Jane glanced down at Maura with a grin and the ME reached up to remove a piece of lint from the shoulder of the suit.

"Not to mention how well it defines your figure," Maura smirked at the pink on Jane's cheeks.

"Speak for yourself… Do you _know_ how many times I've imagined you in that lab coat… and only the lab coat?" Jane quieted her voice to husk out the last portion of her sentence even though they were alone in the elevator.

"I do not. I am pleasantly surprised to hear about it though," Maur leaned up to kiss Jane and it started to get heated.

"You need to stop kissing me or I'll have to hit the emergency stop button and then we'll _definitely _be late…" Jane warned.

_"I wouldn't recommend that ladies," _An overhead voice rang out of the speaker in the ceiling and Jane flushed crimson as Maura laughed.

"Wow, I wouldn't have assumed intercoms would have been installed in elevators in a hotel of this caliber!" Maura excitedly stated, unbothered at being overheard.

"Yeah, because you don't guess…" Jane muttered.

_"We're really trying to spruce the place up bit by bit… Not sure this was the greatest idea though, you're the fourth couple today. Who knew people liked elevators so much." _The voice chirped.

"Oh no, _love_ to stay and chat about that but we're on our floor," Jane started.

"Statistically speaking, public intercourse is an incredibly common fantasy so I would argue that-" Maura was cut off quickly by Jane.

"_Oh my God, _do you have no shame, woman?" Jane grumbled and tugged the smaller woman out of the lift.

_"Have a nice day, ladies!" _The voice called after them and Maura laughed while Jane groaned. By the time they found their venue they had three minutes to get behind the stage and prepare their notes. They smiled at each other as their names were called and were both confident that they would put on a performance that was both entertaining _and_ educational. Each of the women had insisted that the presentation be at least one of those things and were happy to compromise.

The scientists in the audience responded immediately to Maura and the ME was pleased to see that they even laughed along with the police half of the audience at Jane's well-placed jokes. Jane hadn't yet had the pleasure of seeing Maura speak to an audience but she quickly learned that the ME was an interactive seminar giver and was glad to see that everyone in the room seemed to be pleased with the engagement. Jane could recall more seminars than she could count where she'd almost fallen asleep as the presenter droned on and on but Maura captivated the audience just as easily as she'd captivated Jane. It would be an incredibly easy work week for sure.

They had so many questions at the end of their presentation that it ended up taking an extra forty-five minutes. Neither woman minded though, they were both eager to share how amazing the other was and how important it was to work with each other to solve cases. A familiar voice eventually cut through the throngs of people surrounding the pair of women and Jane smiled at her old friend.

"I didn't know you were going to be presenting here! I'm so glad I signed up to watch, you did great!" Jake said and he embraced Jane once again.

"Yeah, it was mostly Doctor Isles, you can give her credit for that," Jane waved him off and Maura made to argue but was interrupted.

"I've actually got a presentation of my own to give. It's on blood spatter analysis. I know you're the best but I'd love to see you there! Then maybe we could get that drink..." He smiled at Jane and she looked from Jake to Maura.

"Actually, I have a dinner date," She said as she leaned closer to Maura's side.

"Bummer for me, who's the lucky guy?" Jake asked as he scratched the back of his head. Jane laughed easily and laced her fingers with Maura's, bringing the blonde's hand up to her lips for a quick kiss.

"Doctor Isles, do you consider yourself to be a lucky guy?" Jane asked amusedly to the Doctor and Maura beamed before she chuckled too.

"Very lucky, though I'm glad to say I'm not a guy," Maura tilted her head to the side as she always did when she was analyzing something. Jane found it adorable and she always did and she kissed Maura's head.

"Oh, I didn't realize…" Jake chuckled nervously. "Oh my God, I must seem like the _biggest_ jerk in the world!" He turned to Maura and looked apologetically worried. "I didn't mean to step on your toes, I'm so sorry." Maura smiled at him and shrugged with one shoulder.

"No need to apologize," Maura waved him off, "I can hardly blame you for trying."

"Oh-kay, this is getting dangerously close to embarrassing for me, so I think it's time we go, Maur, don't you?" Jane gestured to the front door of the building.

"Whatever you say, darling," Maura smiled sweetly and waved to Jake before she let Jane lead her out of the building by the small of her back. "Hey, Jane?"

"Yeah, Maura?" Jane asked as she held the door open for the smaller woman.

"I love you," Maura stopped in the doorway to kiss her Detective sweetly.

"I love you, too," Jane smiled down and linked her hand with Maura's again as they made their way down the busy street and into the evening ahead of them.

Maura walked contently next to Jane until they arrived at one of the restaurants Susie had suggested. She shuffled forward to pull the door open for Jane and the Detective flashed her dimples and shook her head as she walked through the door.

Generally, when Maura took Jane to such a high-class restaurant the greeter would give her off-the-rack clothing a grimace, but the gentleman who approached them seemed to feel like she belonged there.

"Table for two?" He asked in a french accent.

"Oui, merci," Maura responded and he smiled as he guided them to a small, secluded table at the back of the restaurant.

"Exactly _how_ much did this suit cost?" Jane muttered out of the corner of her mouth and Maura Looked at her pointedly.

"No more than you deserve," the blonde whispered back.

"Just five bucks, really?" Jane asked in a joking manner as she more closely examined her blazer. Her antics made Maura laugh.

"Jane," the ME chuckled out and their greeter gestured to their table before he smiled and informed them that they wouldn't need to wait long. Maura made a point of holding Jane's chair out for her and the Detective appreciated that even though she was the more outwardly masculine of the two, Maura wasn't shy to treat her like the woman she was.

"And they say chivalry is dead," Jane snarked out as Maura took her seat.

"Perhaps it's been replaced by modern-day equality in situations such as ours," aloud.

"Works for me," Jane shrugged and a waiter approached their table.

"Bonjour, que puis-je vous avoir ce soir?" The waiter asked and Maura tried to hide her amused smile at the panicked look that overtook Jane's features. Jane watched in awe as Maura spoke perfectly back to the man. He left when Maura was done speaking with a nod of his head and he smiled to Jane widely before he left.

"Did you tell him I was a rube?" Jane sassed to cover the insecurity of her inability to understand french.

"Hardly," Maura chuckled, "I told him that it was an important evening and that we'd like a two thousand seven Gaja Barbaresco to go along with the meal I ordered for us," the blonde explained amusedly.

"Mmm, barbecue sauce wine," Jane teased and Maura clicked her tongue at the brunette. "What's so important about this evening?"

"I've been working with the BPD for exactly one year today," Maura smiled across the table and Jane grinned back.

"Then you deserve the barbecue sauce wine," Jane joked and then sobered herself. "I'm glad you got the job… I'm so happy I got to meet you." Maura lifted a hand to her chest to try to contain the swelling feeling that seemed to want to explode inside of her and her eyes watered slightly as she gazed across the table at the most amazing person she'd ever had the pleasure of knowing.

"Me too, Jane," she whispered and Jane reached across the table to like her hand with Maura's.

* * *

**Just a short little update to let you guys know that I'm still invested in this story and that I'll be coming back to it as often as I'm able to, given my current situation. xx **


	21. Chapter 21

**Shoutout to all the people who continuously support this story by rating and reviewing! It means so much to me that people take the time to care! Thank you! **

* * *

They made their way back to the hotel in relative silence except for Maura's occasional comments on the architectural integrity or design of several buildings. By the time they finally got to their room they were both exhausted and ready for bed. They lay next to each other, both on their backs as they looked up at the ceiling, both content to just be near the other.

"So, what's the best part about working as the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?" Jane turned onto her side to gaze at Maura's profile. Maura grinned before she responded.

"Hmm… definitely analyzing stomach contents," she joked and Jane scoffed.

"_Maura_!" Jane chastized and the ME giggled. "Are you lying?" Jane asked and poked Maura in the ribs.

"Yes," the blonde stated happily before she chuckled.

"I hope you get hives," Jane snarked in mock anger.

"The fact that it was a joke will prevent a histamine reaction," Maura grinned further and then turned to face Jane. They lay gazing at each other and Maura reached a hand over to caress Jane's cheekbones, the outline of her lips, the small cleft in her chin, her strong jawline. "Helping people," Maura finally spoke again.

"Huh?" Jane asked in confusion. The small doctor had sufficiently distracted her. Maura laughed and kissed Jane's forehead before she elaborated.

"The best part of the job. What we do is gruesome and we see the worst of humanity, but we also see the best… I see the good guys win every day and I get to help them. It's incredibly rewarding for me to be a part of that and to bring justice to the people who end up on my table. It's the best part of the job," Maura finished explaining to find Jane smiling admirably at her.

"Yeah," the brunette agreed, "that's the best part." Jane reached her hand forward to lace her fingers with Maura's and the ME smiled lovingly. "That and hearing you walk into the bullpen,"

"Really? Why is that the best part of your day?" Maura asked curiously.

"Well, you're either bringing us reports of evidence that will help us or you just want to see me," Jane shrugged as best she could in her position, "either way, every time I hear your heels clicking down the hallway, I know good news is coming… well, not always _good_ news but you know what I mean."

"I do indeed," Maura agreed. They spend their evening holding onto one another in the small hotel room until they fell asleep tangled in each other's arms.

* * *

Jane woke up to an empty bed and pouted slightly. She lifted her head in search of Maura and smiled when she found the Doctor. One of the best things about sharing a bed with Maura was waking up. Jane frequently woke with her limbs entangled with the smaller woman's, or she woke to find Maura close to the foot of the bed stretching, as she was on that morning. Jane lifted her head more completely and supported herself with her hand as she gazed at the smaller woman. Jane knew most of the names of the yoga positions Maura was doing because the ME had somehow convinced her to engage in them with alarming frequency. Jane's lips formed a sly smile as she watched Maura repeat the sun salutation process. Maura was currently dressed in one of the Detective's tank tops and a pair of white lace panties so Jane decided she would start her morning on a good note and simply enjoy the view. Jane admired the well-formed muscles of Maura's legs and arms. She bit her lip slightly as she gazed at Maura's chest, straining slightly against the little tank top. She was glad to no longer feel the need to hide her longing for the smaller woman.

Maura noticed Jane's staring as she moved from her upward dog position into the downward dog position and she smirked at her ability to gain the Detective's attention so easily. She did her best to ignore the effect Jane's simple staring had on her body as she finished her morning routine.

"Good morning, Jane," Maura sweetly spoke as she stood in the final pose of her stretching.

"Mhmm, is it ever," Jane mumbled tiredly before she stretched once herself, letting a tired groan escape her.

"I made coffee," Maura said as she indicated to the coffee maker on the counter.

"You are the perfect woman," Jane said as she stood from the bed. Instead of walking straight for the hot beverage as Maura had anticipated, Jane stopped to stand in front of Maura and pull the smaller woman into a soft but sweet kiss. "Love your outfit."

"Love yours more," Maura smirked as she ran her hands up Jane's naked thighs and across the long torso of the tall brunette. Jane blushed but grinned at the smaller woman's admiration of her nudity. "Go make your coffee, Detective, we have an early day today," Maura grinned as she ordered the brunette about.

"Tease," Jane muttered before she grabbed a housecoat and walked over to the kitchen portion of the room. Maura laughed and followed the other woman.

"After we're done our presentation this morning we can do whatever you'd like for the rest of the day," Maura reasoned with Jane and the brunette smiled.

"Anything?" Jane tested and Maura nodded. "Boy, you might regret saying that."

"Why?" Maura chuckled out and Jane quirked an eyebrow in her direction before she began to make the coffee. "Jane, why would I regret it?" Maura asked again but Jane simply continued to devilishly grin and ignore the smaller woman.

"What was it you said the other day?" Jane asked, "'patience will be rewarded?'" Jane grinned mischievously into her coffee and Maura stared at her, trying to figure out what kind of plans the Detective could possibly have made for them.

"Does it involve-"

"No," Jane interrupted, "You, my dear, get _no _clues, and you will wait to be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised," Jane declared ominously and Maura squinted her eyes at the Detective.

"Fine… I can accept these terms," Maura conceded and Jane smiled widely. They moved about their morning routines seamlessly and it occurred to both of them that they fit well together even in the small quarters of the room. Maura complimented Jane's suit once again and the Detective tried to hide how pleased she was that Maura was noticing the clothes.

"Did you only pack outfits that I bought you?" Maura asked as she helped Jane into the blazer.

"Yeah," Jane shrugged with one shoulder and turned to face Maura again. She rolled her eyes at the winning grin that Maura was wearing and sighed. "What can I say, they look good." Jane finally admitted to liking the clothes and Maura laughed.

"The wearer greatly assists with that," Maura flirted and Jane pursed her lips before she looked at her watch.

"We have no time for your shenanigans, Doctor, we have a presentation to give," Jane stated decidedly and she turned on her heel to head for the door. "After you," Jane exaggerated her caring gesture as she often did and Maura chuckled at her antics.

"No time for _my _shenanigans?" Maura looked pointedly at Jane who stuck out her chin.

"I have no idea what you might be accusing me of," Jane argued and offered her arm out for Maura to grab.

"I'm sure," Maura sassed and Jane chuckled at the infrequent sarcasm that escaped the blonde.

Their next presentation went as smoothly as the others and they were surprised to see that a few of the faces in the audience were repeat attendees. Jane thought it was rather odd for people to watch the same kind of presentation more than once at this kind of event and couldn't stop herself from feeling slightly uneasy as she noticed that the auditorium was so packed that people were even standing against the back wall. Maura, though, seemed excited that her and Jane's information was so well regarded and she was excited to get to the 'Q' and 'A' portion of their event. That was until the questions started.

"Is it true that you recently got abducted by an obsessed stalker and had to defend yourself by killing the man?" Someone shouted from the audience and Maura's insides froze. Jane felt a seething rage begin to build along with acidity in her stomach. She wanted to pull Maura from the stage and rip whoever had asked the question to shreds; or arrest them at the very least. Maura took a deep breath instead and looked over to Jane. Maura thought it would be natural for people to be curious about the event. She'd honestly been surprised that their first few presentations hadn't been overtaken by questions like this one. She could see Jane's metaphorical hackles raising and shook her head toward Jane to let the Detective know that it was okay, that she needn't react negatively.

"Unfortunately, yes, that is true," Maura spoke calmly into the microphone and mutterings of surprise broke out across the crowd.

"How can you call yourself a doctor if you broke your oath to protect all life?" Someone else called out and Maura glanced down to the pink scar on her palm and finger. Jane moved forward and spoke on the ME's behalf.

"There is nobody in this country or possibly even the world that is more qualified to do the job Doctor Isles does," Jane spoke confidently. "We all know that in this line of work danger can lurk around every corner and that sometimes we have to act in ways that don't suit us personally to ensure the safety of other people… Doctor Isles works incredibly hard every day to ensure the safety of the public, more so than most people give her credit for, and when she defended herself against Casey Jones, she was defending the lives of countless other women who he might have chosen to brutalize, as he had with his first victim," Jane finished and Maura smiled slightly at Jane defending her.

"Has it affected your ability to work as a coroner?" A doctor in the front row asked.

"Not anymore…" Maura spoke honestly. "At first I felt as though I had betrayed the rules of Doctorhood, but Detective Rizzoli argued that I had to act the way I did. Being fearful or ashamed will not help me to speak for any future victims of crimes like the one I was a part of."

"Do you regret your actions?" Another guest asked. Maura seemed to be frozen again so Jane spoke up.

"She doesn't need to," Jane spoke resolutely. "She acted in self-defense and in the only way that would result in her staying alive. Regretting her actions would be disrespectful to Casey Jones's other victims and any future victim that Maura works on." A few members of the audience clapped in agreement with the statement and it eased Maura's insecurity to know that other people agreed with Jane's belief. She tried not to let on that it still bothered her that she'd stabbed a man but she dreamt about it sometimes; especially if Jane wasn't around. The Detective seemed to sense that Maura was starting to feel uncomfortable and so she took the opportunity to give the ME an escape. "While we're completely transparent about the events that transpired that night, that's not what this seminar is about. I'm happy to answer any questions regarding the incident at a later time but for now try to limit your questions to what you've learned during the presentation," Jane spoke to the crowd of people and Maura's heart swelled at the care and consideration that always seemed to radiate from Jane. The rest of the questions were safe enough for Maura to answer and she was endlessly grateful to the detective by her side.

* * *

"Are you going to tell me what on Earth I'm wearing?" Maura asked as she looked down at the odd black vest with neon green stripes attached to it.

"Not until I have to," Jane teased as she helped secure the garment to the small doctor.

"Well it doesn't go very well with my suit," Maura complained and Jane laughed.

"Don't worry, we all have to wear one," Jane tried to reason with her and accidentally gave Maura a clue to what they'd be doing.

"All? So it's more than just the two of us?" Maura questioned and Jane rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Nancy Drew, it's more than just the two of us," Jane verified and Maura chuckled at the name. Jane finished securing the vest and pushed Maura through the doors of the changeroom and into a sort of observation area that had glass panels that looked out into an arena of sorts. Maura saw through the glass that there were two teams of people of varying ages shooting at each other with large plastic guns and hiding behind or underneath things to avoid getting hit.

"Laser tag?" Maura asked in surprise and Jane nodded in excitement. Maura was always open to trying new things and the look of childlike glee that overtook Jane's features had Maura excited to play the game as well.

"Do you hate it?" Jane asked. She was worried that Maura would think it was childish but was delightfully surprised when Maura bounced on the spot instead.

"Where do I get my gun?" The ME asked and Jane laughed and pointed through a set of doors. "Are we on the same team?"

"Of course, it's your first time and I have a huge advantage," Jane said as she gestured to where her gun would usually be attached to her hip. Maura smiled.

"Let's go kick some butts," She said and walked happily through the doors to get ready with her gun. Jane laughed at Maura's misuse of the colloquialism but didn't correct her. Maura had a lot of fun following Jane around the darkened room and shooting her gun at the other team so that she might win. She felt very real adrenaline pumping through her at the risk of getting shot by the fake guns and liked it when she had to hide with Jane, pressed closely together behind a block of crates. She laughed as a small boy of about seven jumped out from under a bridge and Jane didn't have the heart to shoot him first so he shot them both. They laughed at each other as they walked back to the viewing area. They played for about an hour more before they lost and got tired of running around.

"So did you enjoy yourself?" Jane asked as they handed in their gear.

"Oh yes!" Maura exclaimed. "I would definitely be open to doing it again."

Jane smiled and linked her hand with the other woman's as they exited the building. They walked up the street in the direction they came but Maura began to sputter as they walked passed her parked car.

"We're not done," Jane explained and Maura looked curiously at the tall brunette. How could her day get any better? Jane had a funny way of making Maur happier than she ever thought she could be and the second she thought that happiness had reached its peak, Jane pushed it further still.

"You surprise me every day," Maura complimented and she brought their linked fingers up to her mouth so that she could kiss Jane's hand. "I've already had so much fun, how will I repay you?" Jane laughed at Maura's question.

"You don't have to repay me for anything. You deserve to have fun, Maura… you repay me just by being you," Jane responded sweetly and Maura swooned internally. She squeezed Jane's hand instead of speaking as they continued down the street. Maura was surprised when Jane led her up the stone steps of the Smithsonian museum and she was elated to be there.

The rest of their afternoon was spent in the museum with Maura excitedly explaining where various items originated and how they came to be there. Jane listened happily to Maura's chatter and was pleased to see that she'd chosen to bring Maura to things the Doctor ended up enjoying greatly. She loved how smart Maura was and although she often made fun of the smaller woman's Google-mouth, the truth was that Jane could listen to it for hours. She was dazzled completely by the way Maura's eyes lit up when she spoke about something she particularly liked and was enamored by the ME's lips. She loved that Maura had a way of explaining things that was engaging but not pretentious so that nobody would feel stupid if they spoke to her. Maura didn't talk the way she did to impress anyone, it was just the way she was and Jane adored it.

* * *

Jane and Maura stopped at a small grocery store and elected to make themselves dinner on the last night of their stay. They worked together in the kitchen seamlessly and it occurred to Jane how unique it was that even though she'd spent virtually every second of the last week in close quarters with Maura, she still wasn't tired of being with the other woman. They moved around each other easily in the small space of the kitchen and Jane smiled at how natural it was. She thought about making dinners with Maura in the ME's house and how at home she felt there. After eight months of friendship and seeing almost Maura every day, Jane was pleased that she and Maura still got along better than any of her previous partners.

Maura meanwhile noticed the small smile that seemed to be glued to Jane's face and she knew she could spend the rest of her life looking at it. She pictured how nice it was waking up in Jane's arms or going down to her living room to see that Jane had made her breakfast and coffee. She began to smile too as she thought about how lucky she was to have Jane in her life and it occurred to her that even though she spent the majority of her time with the Detective, she still missed the tall brunette when she wasn't around.

"What are you so happy about?" Jane nudged Maura with her elbow and the ME grinned over to her.

"You," Maura shrugged with one shoulder and then kissed Jane sweetly. "What are _you_ so happy about?"

"You," Jane admitted and smiled down at the blonde. Maura blushed slightly as she brought their plates over to the table. Jane grabbed glasses and the bottle of wine and followed. "Do you think it's weird that we spend so much time together but we're still not sick of each other?" Jane asked as she sat across from the ME.

"I'm hardly the best person to ask," Maura joked and Jane grinned. "I simply enjoy your company, I don't look much further beyond that," Maura shrugged.

"That's good to hear, all this time I thought you hated me," Jane joked and Maura rolled her eyes at the brunette.

"Yes, I attempt long-term relationships with all the people that I hate," Maura attempted sarcasm and Jane grinned at it.

"How's that working out for you?" The Detective continued to tease.

"Quite well, I think," Maura mused out loud. "Especially lately," The ME blew a kiss from across the table and Jane blushed before she ducked her head down to grin at her plate of food. They ate their meal and moved over to the bed after they were done washing up. Jane opened her laptop and suggested they watch a movie Maura had never heard of. Maura agreed and they slumped back against the headboard together as the movie started to play. It was an old police movie that Jane had never seen and as the scenes played out the Detective thought that she ought to never have suggested it at all. There was a blonde criminal for the main character and she'd ended up slitting someone's throat in the film. Jane felt Maura flinch at the scene and looked away from the blood spraying into the blonde's hair toward the smaller woman beside her. Maura's eyes were tightly shut and she was wearing a slight grimace.

"Shit, sorry, I didn't know that was in the movie," Jane apologized and she pulled Maura slightly closer into her side protectively.

"It's fine… I'm fine…" Maura breathed out as she held her eyes closed.

"It's okay if you're not fine, Maura…" Jane reasoned with the blonde. "You don't always have to feel okay about it." Maura leaned her head back onto the headboard and looked up at the ceiling as Jane turned the movie off.

"I just can't believe it happened sometimes… I know that I was there and I know that I... killed him. I can still feel his blood spraying into my hair and dripping off of my clothes. I know that I did it but I just can't _believe_ it sometimes. It feels almost like a dream. I feel crazy… do you know what I mean?" Maura asked and finally looked over into Jane's caring eyes. The detective lifted one of her scarred hands to drag a finger across the small, hardly noticeable scar on Maura's neck. She then lightly trailed a path to Maura's hand and lifted it up with her own so that the deep pink line on Maura's palm was exposed. Maura tried to close her hand to hide the scar but Jane's firm grasp held it open. She fought slightly until her mind took in the raised bumps on the backs of Jane's hands and she finally relaxed again.

"I know what you mean," Jane confirmed and she began to rub small circles into Maura's palms. It was the same technique Maura had used on Jane during the beginning of their friendship and although the action did nothing to heal Maura's hand physically, it did everything to heal her emotionally. The simple act of Jane massaging her hand had Maura remembering how Jane had also gone through a terrible trauma, how Jane had overcome it and bared her scars openly to the ME so that they might begin to heal. The meaning behind the small action spoke volumes to Maura and she felt a tear leak out of the corner of her eye as she smiled sadly toward Jane. "I know what you mean and I can help you, too."

"Thank you," Maura whispered before she leaned slightly forward to press her lips softly to Jane's.

* * *

"So, did you guys have fun on your totally _not_ personal vacation where you _for sure _focused exclusively on work?" Frost asked as Jane sat at her desk for the first time since she'd been back. She smirked over to her partner and decided that two could play at his game.

"Yes, we did… were you able to solve _any _cases while we were away?" Jane smiled over to him and he scowled.

"Okay, no, but that has nothing to do with your vacation, this guy just happens to be very elusive and-"

"Mhmm," Jane cut him off with a smirk and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Alright, so _maybe_ you're the best detective we've got and we could really use your help on a case…" Frost admitted as he rolled his eyes and Jane smiled widely. A week felt like an eternity away from her job and she was happy to be able to throw herself into her work. Korsak walked into the bullpen and clapped Jane on the back before he smiled at her and sat at his own desk.

"You and the Doc try to rip each other's heads off after spending so much time together?" Korsak joked and Frost chuckled.

"No, actually, I had a lot of fun," Jane informed him and then heard someone gagging behind her.

"Ew, I do _not _need to hear about all the fun you had with Maura on your gaycation," Frankie complained loudly and Frost laughed at the phrase he used. Jane rolled her eyes and Korsak chucked.

"Well," the elder man began, "if you haven't gotten tired of each other yet you probably never will. I would know, I've been married three times," Korsak said expertly.

"And how exactly does _that _make you an expert in relationships?" Frost teased him.

"I'm just saying! After spending so much time together and they're still all lovey-dovey? I'd put a ring on it, Janie," Korsak shrugged and then began to sip his coffee.

"You know, and flawed as _that_ logic is," Frost looked pointedly toward Korsak who shrugged, "it is clear that you two are meant for each other. Maybe you _should_ ask her." Jane looked in shock at her teammates and then to her little brother.

"Don't look at me, I already consider her family," Frankie raised his hands innocently. "Just don't ever talk about what you did while you were away," he pleaded and the detectives laughed.

"You're all nosier than my mother," Jane complained but she couldn't keep the grin off of her face as she once again lifted her mousepad to look at the pressed flower Maura had given her so many months ago. There was no doubt in her mind that they were right; that she and Maura belonged together. She blushed as she thought of Maura in some white frilly dress that was way over the top, but somehow suited the ME perfectly. She imagined bouquets made of the flower Maura had given her and she pictured every moment of the rest of her life with the ME. She couldn't keep the smile from her face for the rest of the day and her cheeks were sore by the time she was ready to go home. She had a stop to make first though.

Jane felt ridiculous as she stood a couple of weeks later starring once again down at a ring that she believed Maura would like. She'd spent hours in the shop looking through the glass at the small gold band. The band itself was thin and delicate looking but the size of the diamond was substantial. It was both classy and artistic in its design. Jane could picture it on the small blonde woman perfectly but her heart hammered in her ears and pounded against her chest so strongly when she thought about buying it that it was hard for her to breathe. She had the money and she wanted to buy the ring for Maura. She did not doubt that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with the small blonde woman but she couldn't stop worrying about what would happen if Maura said no. With that thought ringing in her ears, she picked up her phone and called her partner.

"_This is Frost," _he spoke into the receiver. Jane could hear the sounds of the Dirty Robber in the background of the call.

"Hey… it's Jane," Jane said stupidly and Barry chuckled at her.

"_Are you at the ring shop again?" _He asked knowingly and Jane sighed heavily. _"I don't know why you're panicking so much about this. I've seen the ring. She'll love it! Buy the damn thing and propose already!" _

"What if she says n-"

"_She won't!" _He argued over the phone with Jane for what felt like the thousandth time.

"How can you know?" She asked as she leaned from foot to foot and chewed on the side of her thumb.

_"I just know. I know you and I know her and I _know _that you two are the real thing. I just know." _

"Okay, maybe _you're _sure, but how can _I _know?" Jane asked into the receiver of the phone and heard Frost sigh. He was reminded of a conversation he had with Maura in her office about whether or not the ME was attracted to Jane. He shook his head at their similarities and grinned.

"_You'll just have to ask her," _He spoke into the phone and when Jane didn't respond he knew that she needed to hear more words of encouragement. _"Jane, she's been in love with you pretty much since you met! She told me once that you make her feel important. That you make her feel understood and that nobody else has ever made her feel so valued or cherished. I think she said that the week you met… She's been in love with you forever. She deserves to know how much you love her back." _

"I do," Jane spoke into the phone and then chuckled at her choice of words.

"_Buy the damn ring, Rizzoli!" _She heard Korsak shout into the receiver and she smiled down at the beautiful gold band. The guys hung up the phone and she put her cell back into her pocket. She had to wave down a sales clerk to get them to pull the ring out of its case; they'd gotten used to the Detective simply coming in and looking down at it over the last few weeks.

Jane paid for the ring and the sales clerk packaged it in a small velvet box. Jane thought it was funny how something so small could feel so heavy but she was smiling as she left the store and walked to her car. She drove over to Maura's house and parked in the back so that she could visit her mother before she finally met up with Maura. She walked into the guest house and her mother greeted her cheerfully.

"I know that look, Jane Rizzoli, what are you up to?" Angela asked as she suspiciously eyed her daughter. Jane couldn't keep the smile off of her face and found that she was too giddy to talk so she simply reached into the pocket of her slacks and pulled out the small velvet box. Angela's eyes widened and she crossed the room to flip the lid open. Her eyes teared up as she gazed down at the ring and then she placed her hand delicately to the side of Jane's cheek. "I am so happy for you, baby," Angela spoke softly and a single tear leaked out of the side of Jane's eye.

"Thanks, Ma," Jane whispered back and cleared her throat.

"Oh, when are you doing it? How are you doing it?" Angela started to rapid-fire questions and Jane chuckled instead of getting annoyed.

"I was thinking next weekend on our day off," Jane said.

"Do you have a plan?" Angela asked.

"Mostly?" Jane answered nervously. "I don't know if I should call her mother and tell her or not. Is it weird if I do? Is it weirder if I don't?" Jane began to pace and her mother laughed.

"Well, you told me… it seems only fair that Constance would know too," Angela reasoned and Jane nodded.

"Yeah, okay… okay, I'll call her," Jane said and she started to fumble with her phone. It rang several times before Constance picked up.

_"Bonjour," _Constance spoke tiredly into the receiver and Jane kicked herself for not thinking about time differences.

"Hey Constance, it's Jane… sorry to wake you," Jane spoke guiltily into the receiver.

_"Not to worry, Jane, I was just about to make my morning tea. To what do I owe this pleasure?" _

"Oh, well I uh, I have some news that I thought you might want to know," Jane stammered and Constance waited patiently. "I'm going to ask Maura to marry me and I thought I should tell you first, not that I'm asking for her _hand _or whatever, she can make her own life choices, but I did tell my Ma, so I thought it would be respectful if I called to let you know first and I-" Jane was cut off by Constance's musical laughter so she quieted her ranting.

_"My, the only other person who rambles to me like that is Maura," _Constance joked and Jane chuckled at the astute comparison. "_I appreciate that you called to inform me, but you're quite right. Maura can make her own decisions. But Jane, if you _were _asking for her hand in some chivalrous, outdated gesture of some sort I would have gladly accepted," _Constance finished kindly and Jane's shoulders relaxed as she smiled.

"Good to know," Jane chuckled into the phone. "Anyway, I'll leave you to your day…"

_"Give Maura my best, darling, and ask her to call me after you, oh… what was the phrase? 'Pop the question?'" _Jane laughed and nodded even though Constance was on the other side of the world.

"Sure thing," Jane said before she hung up the phone. She looked at the ring once more before she handed it to her mother. "Can you hold onto this for me? Maura has a habit of making sure my pockets are empty and I tend to forget things in there… I don't want her to find it or anything."

"Of course!" Angela took the ring box and admired it further, causing Jane to laugh.

"You _do_ know you'll have to give it back, right?" Jane teased her mother and Angela rolled her eyes.

"I do know how proposals work. Where on Earth did you get this, Jane? It's beautiful," Angela asked dazedly.

"That old jewelry boutique that Maura pointed out to us when we all went shopping a few weeks ago… she said something about loving the style of the artisan at the time so I thought…" Jane shrugged one shoulder and Angela's heart swelled.

"You're so thoughtful, honey," Angela spoke kindly and Jane rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, don't tell anybody. I have a reputation to uphold," Jane snarked in her usual tone and backed toward the door. "I'm gonna head over now, Maura's making me dinner."

"Have a good night!' Angela called out as Jane walked from the guest house to Maura's back door. Jane used her key to let herself into the house and looked around quickly to see that although the oven was on and the table was set, Maura was nowhere to be seen. She moved to the table to fill the two wine glasses, assuming that Maura was probably just upstairs grabbing something. She filled Maura's glass and then her own. She lifted her glass to her lips to sip the sweet-smelling wine but a voice from the front hall caught her attention.

"God, I missed you," a man spoke from the foyer and Jane moved so that she could see who it was. She quietly stepped around the table to angle herself so that she could see the front door and what she saw made the glass slip out of her hand faster than her heart started to beat in her chest. All she could do was run.

* * *

In the weeks following their trip to DC, it was infrequent that the two women slept apart from each other. Jane's apartment remained largely ignored and Maura was glad that the Detective was spending so much time at her house. She wanted to ask Jane to move in but she would have to have a conversation with the Detective first. Maura was fearful of how Jane would react. She wanted to continue to develop her relationship with Jane but she couldn't. She had a secret that could break their bond irreparably and it was holding her back from everything she'd ever wanted. She knew she would have to tell Jane sooner rather than later but she was fearful of the reaction she'd get.

She'd spent most of her day off cooking one of Jane's favorite meals and was setting the table. She expected the Detective home any minute. She heard a knock at the front door and thought how odd it was for Jane to be knocking. Maura thought that perhaps Jane needed help carrying something in, so she moved to answer the door. She pulled it open and froze as she stared at the person on the other side of it. She didn't move as the man stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her small frame and leaned down to passionately kiss her.

"God, I missed you," he muttered before he leaned in to kiss Maura again. The shock finally began to wear off of the small blonde and she reached up to push herself out of his hold but it was too late. She heard the sound of glass shattering to the floor and looked back into her house to see a broken wine glass; red liquid pooling around it and reminding her of blood. She glanced up in time to get a glimpse of Jane's unmistakable curls as the back door slammed a barrier between them.

* * *

**And I oop. **


	22. Chapter 22

**I couldn't leave you guys hanging for too long lol. Hope you like it! -JJ**

* * *

"Why don't you ever tell me when you're coming?" Maura shouted at Ian Faulkner. He backed up in surprise at her outrage. She'd never behaved that way before during one of his surprise visits but Maura felt marginally better that he seemed so shocked. She pushed him forcefully away from her and glared at him before she tried to run after Jane. He grabbed her wrist and held her in place as Maura heard Jane's tires squeal out of the driveway and out into the street. "Let go of me, Ian!" Maura shouted and the man finally listened. Jane was already gone.

"Maura, what's the matter?" He asked and she stomped back into her house in search of her car keys. She cursed herself for not remembering where she'd put them.

"You can't just show up at people's houses and kiss them, Ian!" Maura shouted from across the kitchen.

"Well, you've never complained before!" He argued back.

"That was _before,_" Maura put her face in her hands before she started to frantically search for her keys again. She looked at the oven and turned it off. She looked at the dining room table and almost cried at the romantic display of candles and her good dishes. "Oh God, what am I going to do?" She asked into the empty air and Ian walked into the house and dropped his bag on the floor.

"Oh…" He looked at the table and to Maura's especially nice dress. He read the panic in her face and he scrunched up his own. "Were you on a date?"

"I was about to be," Maura shot at him impatiently and he slumped his shoulders.

"But we're… you and me, we're supposed to…" He indicated between the two of them and he raised his eyebrows when Maura rolled her eyes.

"Supposed to what?" Maura shouted. "I'm _supposed _to just wait for you for _years, _and open my door to you every time you get bored or you're in the neighborhood or you need supplies? I'm not a pharmacy!"

"I didn't say you were!" He shouted back.

"But you sure as hell treated me like one!" She continued to yell uncharacteristically at him as Angela walked through the back door.

"Maura, you can't just turn me away, people depend on you… I depend on you! We're married for Christ's sake!" Ian stood tall and proud as he shouted at the smaller woman who snorted at his claim.

"I married you to help those poor children in Haiti, Ian, I didn't do it out of love," She bitterly spoke and then heard Angela gasp behind her. She turned around and clamped a hand over her mouth at what she'd just admitted in front of Jane's mother.

"But I did!" Ian ignored Angela and continued to shout. "I loved you! Maura, I love you!"

"You don't even know what love is!" She turned away from Angela to yell at him. "You just expected me to put my life on hold and wait for you? It's been _eight years!_"

"And you're the only thing that got me through them," Ian spoke softly and Maura turned her gaze from him.

"That part of my life is over and I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering if or when you'll ever show up again. I'm done with it. I've found someone else who actually knows what love is and I'm not giving any of that up because _you _decided that I was worth a visit," Maura turned from him, and Angela, though she was confused beyond belief, embraced Maura tenderly and led Maura to the guest house.

"Who was that man?" Angela asked in a concerned and motherly way as they crossed from one house to the other.

"It doesn't matter, I need to find Jane," Maura looked back to her own house and groaned at the thought of the man that was there.

"You might want to give her time to cool off…" Angela warned as she led the blonde into the kitchen.

"I don't want to give her time to run away or come to the wrong conclusion!" Maura started to hyperventilate and Angela turned to make some tea.

"Sit down and start from the beginning. Trust me, babe, Janie's not going anywhere," Angela spoke confidently and Maura listened but sighed heavily as she sat at the table of her guest house.

"I had an opportunity to help people when I was a part of Doctors Without Borders…" Maura began, "Ian and I met in Haiti and we needed more supplies than we could get. I had the money to buy more and he could transport it directly to our crew. He's Australian, so he was only in Haiti on a work visa. He wasn't able to enter America with me unless we were married… so I married him," Maura shrugged and Angela tried not to look shocked at the admittance. "I just looked at those kids there… I looked at all of these families who had _nothing_… they were poor and dying but, Angela, they were so, _so _happy with what little they had… I couldn't just leave them like that. I was able to help so I did in the only way that I could."

"Well, she can't really get mad at you for helping poor defenseless babies," Angela argued.

"Maybe not, but she can certainly get angry at me for not telling her about it… she saw him kissing me, Angela, she must be so angry," Maura dropped her head in her hand and sighed.

"Yeah, she sure is fiery," Angela conceded before she sighed. "Were you kissing him back?"

"_No!"_ Maura squeaked out, appalled. "Of course not! I was just so shocked to see him that I couldn't move and she just walked in on it… I was going to tell her all about it tonight and then ask her to move in with me and now..." Maura trailed off as tears ran down her face.

"...And now you'll work through it together because you love each other and that's what couples do, Maura," Angela comforted the small blonde. "Jane loves you with all her heart, I know it… you'll get through this." Maura leaned into the motherly woman and let Angela rub her back as she cried.

* * *

Jane had run out of the house and back into her mother's. She quickly grabbed the ring box off of the table where Angela had put it and left without another word. She'd squealed out of the driveway and hurried down the street as fast as she reasonably could. She was in shock. She was able to focus only on the road ahead of her, unable to process what she'd just seen. She moved through the streets of Boston and ended up at the only place she felt she could go. She parked and entered the apartment building and knocked on the door.

"Janie?" Frankie asked in confusion before he stepped aside to let her in. "Are you okay?" He asked as he noticed her fidgeting with her hands and clenching her jaw. Jane stood still in the doorway for a moment before she nodded once. She'd always had to be strong for her brothers and she hated to let them see her weak, but the nod, the indication that she was fine was too much of a lie for her heart to bear so she quickly shook her head instead, and tears started to leak down her face.

"Oh man, come on," Frankie pulled Jane into his place and then closed the door before he guided her to the couch. She sat down gratefully and covered her face in her hands to hide her tears. He sat next to her, rubbing her back until she was ready to talk.

"I saw Maura…" Jane's voice cracked as she spoke and she had to breathe deeply several times before she could continue. "I saw some guy kissing Maura and she let him."

"What? When? I'm gonna kick his ass," Frankie squared his shoulders and his face contorted into one of anger.

"T-today, just now…" Jane spoke and Frankie deflated slightly in confusion.

"Just now? Wasn't she making you dinner tonight?" He questioned her. "Seems a little weird that she'd invite a guy over if she was expecting you… gotta be some kind of explanation. What did she have to say about it?" He asked and then started to rub Jane's hunched back.

"She didn't _say_ anything. I saw it and I left," Jane said and she ran a hand through her hair before she wiped her tears on the back of her arm. "I walked in and I saw it and I left…"

"You didn't even give her a chance to explain?" Frankie reasoned with his sister. He loved Jane but he also loved Maura.

"Whose side are you on?" Jane asked angrily.

"Yours, Jane, always yours. You know that," he responded calmly which made Jane calm down slightly too. "Listen, I'm gonna order us a meat-lovers pizza, get you some water and then you'll stay here. You can have my room and I'll sleep on the couch," he spoke kindly as he rubbed Jane's shoulder and stood to bring her some water.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Jane argued out of habit Frankie rolled his eyes.

"You came here for a reason, sis, so shut up and let me take care of you for once in your life?" He sassed her and she chuckled slightly through the shock and sadness. This was not how she'd planned to end her week.

She spent the evening letting Frankie take care of her as best he could, which was mostly gentle bullying and him giving her every blanket he could find. She eventually got tired of pretending to watch him play video games and headed to his room to sleep.

She woke in confusion at being in her brother's room and his pajamas before the events of the previous evening flooded through her mind again. She sighed largely and reached over to her blazer on the bedside table get the ring box. She flipped it open and looked sadly at the beautifully unique gold band. She closed her eyes, cursing herself for not being angrier at Maura but all she could feel was sadness and resentment toward herself for not being good enough for the amazing woman. She would still give Maura the stupid ring in a heartbeat, but it tore at her insides to think that Maura would say no. That Maura did say no, in a way, to Jane's hope of their future together. She missed the quiet knock on the door and was too slow to hide the ring from her brother.

"Oh, shit," he said in surprise. "I didn't think you'd actually take our advice when we told you to put a ring on it…" He reached out to take the box from his sister and she handed it to him numbly as a couple of tears leaked out of her eyes.

"Guess I'll have to take it back," she mused quietly. Frankie looked down at the ring and smiled sadly with half of his mouth.

"I think you should go talk to her… Jane the way you guys look at each other… there's _no way_ it's what you're thinking," Frankie tried to reason again but Jane rolled her eyes.

"It sure looked like what I'm thinking," she spat at him and then pulled the blanket closer around herself. He stood staring at his sister before he sighed and left the room. He took his keys and made his way over to her apartment to grab enough clothes for the weekend. He didn't mind if Jane stayed with him but he didn't want to put up with her depression stink again if he didn't have to. He grabbed her toothbrush and a couple of shirts and sweatpants. He decided it wouldn't hurt to rummage through her cupboards a little bit to see if she had anything good to eat… he _had_ slept on a couch for her after all. He smiled at the box of cocoa puffs and reached for them but was stopped by a knock on the door. It repeated quickly and before he could move to open it, he heard a key being turned in the lock.

"Jane, it's not what-" Maura stopped at the sight of Frankie rummaging through the kitchen. "Oh, hello." He looked at her tired eyes and her messy hair. He saw dried tear tracks on her cheeks and noticed that she was wearing the most casual clothes he'd ever seen her in. He sighed and then opened his arms out to her. She closed the distance between them and let Frankie pull her into a tight but.

"She's not here, Maura," he spoke and she sniffled.

"I called her so many times… she won't answer, is she okay?" She asked, and he noted the concern in her eyes.

"She's fine," he nodded and then shrugged. "Well, she's crabby as all hell but you know, that's Jane."

"Frankie, if I could just explain, it's really not at all what it seems," Maura pleaded and Frankie battled internally with himself, unsure if he should continue to be Maura's caring friend or Jane's protective brother. He settled for both.

"Well, it _seems _pretty bad, Maura… she saw you kissing some guy, what is she supposed to think?" He shrugged.

"Oh, God, I know it looks bad, and it _is _bad but I wasn't kissing him back!" Maur started to speak frantically. "He just showed up! I haven't seen Doctor Faulkner is two years and he just _shows up_ on the night I'm going to ask Jane to move in with me?" Maura paused to laugh bitterly. "Knocks on my door and acts like I'm just supposed to throw myself at him as if he hasn't been gone for the last eight years…" Maura glared frustratedly down at the floor and Frankie relaxed a little.

"So… you're not, you know… cheating on my sister?" Frankie hesitated his question and then mixed the last string of words together quietly.

"No!" Maura shouted. "I _love_ your sister! She's the best friend I've ever had! She's the one person on this planet that understands me, I'm in love with her. I want to… shout it from the rooftops and get a skywriter and let the whole world know how important she is to me- I wouldn't because she would hate that, but I _love _her and I want to spend the rest of my life making her as happy as she's made me," Maura was breathing heavily at the end of her rant and Frankie was trying to hide his smile.

"Well just tell her that… exactly that, and then you guys can get back to normal," Frankie smiled at Maura and the ME sighed.

"She clearly doesn't want to see me," Maura gestured at the Janeless apartment in frustration.

"Give her some space to calm down… I'll try to talk some sense into her," Frankie grinned as he thought about the ring he still happened to be carrying. It suited the blonde perfectly. "Don't worry… she'll come around,"

"You and Angela seem so sure," Maura commented and Frankie chuckled.

"Because we are. Now go home and rest up. You'll need all the rest you can get if you're gonna be dealing with a grouchy, heartbroken Jane all week…" Frankie paused and assessed Maura's resolve. "You know it's gonna take a lot to get her to talk to you, right? I mean, she's a good person but _man_ is she stubborn."

"I don't care," Maura stated confidently. "I'm stubborn too."

* * *

Jane, as predicted, spent the weekend wallowing at Frankie's apartment. He'd tried to tell her about his conversation with Maura but Jane ignored his attempts and claimed that she didn't want to talk about it.

Maura spent the weekend mostly pacing around her house and venting to Bass about how stupid she felt for not telling Jane about Ian sooner. The tortoise, of course, listened attentively to his friend but wished frequently that Maura would take a break in her pacing so that he might be able to focus on her more clearly. By the time Monday morning showed up both women were exhausted and riddled with anxiety. It was not a good way to start the week in their field of work.

Maura walked up the precinct steps and thought it was odd that Jane wasn't already parked in front of the building. She worried that Jane had stayed home for a short time before her fears were abated by the sight of the tall brunette shifting from foot to foot beside the elevators. Jane must have parked in the garage to avoid being seen. Maura approached slowly and she saw Jane stiffen at the sound of her heels.

"Jane, may I speak with you?" Maura asked as professionally as she could muster. Only Jane could have noticed the slight quiver to the tone of the professional doctor.

"I don't want to talk about this or I'll never make it through the day," Jane waved Maura off and stepped into the elevator, pressing the 'close' button repeatedly as she willed the tears away from herself, refusing to even look at the blonde.

Maura felt her own welts of tears begin to start burning in her eyes so she simply turned away from the lift and took the stairs down to the morgue. Jane would have to listen to her eventually… right?

Maura walked into her office and slumped into her chair with a large sigh. She pressed her hands to the sides of her head and massaged her temples. She had a stress headache that not even yoga or meditation could fix.

"You okay, Maura?" Susie Chang walked into the office and, sensing that Maura was indeed _not_ okay, she closed the door behind her.

"I'm just tired," Maura murmured. It was true enough that she wouldn't get hives.

"Alright…" Susie looked curiously at her boss. "We were gonna surprise the bullpen with pizza and cake at lunch… it's Sergeant Detective Korsak's birthday this week."

"That's kind of you," Maura smiled politely and Susie got the distinct impression that something was really weighing on her friend.

"We thought maybe you could ask Jane what we should get written on the cake," Susie supplied. "She knows him the best and they like to kid, you know?" Maura laughed humorlessly and then sighed.

"I think he'll appreciate the cake no matter what's written on it," Maura stated. "I'm going to change into my scrubs, will you close the door on your way out?" Maura asked politely but robotically. Susie hadn't seen the blonde behave like that for months. She was concerned. Susie left Maura's office with a quick nod and made her way up to the bullpen to see if her friend Barry might know what was happening.

* * *

Frost sat at his desk and opened his mouth to greet Jane when she entered the room but the tired look on her face and the emptiness in her eyes made him close his mouth. He looked over to Korsak who was also studying Jane curiously. Frost indicated to Jane with his head, silently asking if Korsak knew what was wrong but the older man shrugged his shoulders and frowned in response. Frost would have to enter the battlefield without any armor… or weapons or even a plan.

"Hey, Jane… have a good weekend?" He hazarded a question. Jane bitterly laughed and sat heavily in her chair.

"Don't ask," she groaned as she ran her hands over her face to try to erase her tiredness.

"Trouble in paradise?" Korsak tried to joke but Jane glared at him and he quieted.

"_Psst." _

Frost heard a sound and looked quickly around the room.

_"Pssst."_

It repeated more urgently and his eyes landed on Susie waving him over furiously from the doorway, slightly hidden by the blooming tree of small purple flowers.

"Uh, alright, I'm gonna go get some coffee, anybody want anything?" Frost stood from his desk. Korsak looked at the full mug of liquid sitting on Frost's desk and his face contorted into one of confusion. Jane ignored him completely as she slumped at her desk and clicked away mindlessly on her PC. "Oookay," he made his way over to Susie and they walked down the hall out of earshot and out of sight.

"Something is wrong with Maura," Susie stated.

"Something is up with Jane, too," Frost informed her.

"You think they broke up?" She asked in surprise.

"What? No way! Jane's been ring shopping for the last couple of months!" Frost argued in surprise and Susie's face scrunched in confusion.

"Well, what's wrong with them, then?" Susie asked and Frost shrugged.

"What's wrong with them is none of your business," Frankie walked out of the elevator and looked pointedly between the two of them. They had the decency to look guilty.

"We're just worried," Frost explained lamely and Frankie shook his head.

"Worry about your own love life, Frost," He sassed in the Rizzoli way. Barry rolled his eyes and Korsak walked around the corner to join the gang.

"Boy, I don't know what the hell happened over the weekend but I do _not _want to have to be the one to help Jane with this case… Oh, hey Frankie, go talk some sense into your sister, will ya?" Frankie chuckled humorlessly.

"I would if I could," the younger Rizzoli supplied and the group was interrupted once again by an unexpected intruder.

"Will you all stop gossiping, I thought I worked with detectives, not old women," Jane snapped. "Susie… to think that you'd be in on it," Jane scolded Maura's friend and the Criminalist blushed.

"I'm sorry," Susie spoke, "it's just that Maura seemed off today and I was wondering if any of you might know why so I can help…"

"Yeah, well let her feel bed," Jane rebutted. "She deserves it."

"Aw, come on Janie, no she doesn't," Frankie tried to defend the ME but Jane rolled her eyes and stomped back to their cluster of desks. They left Jane alone about it for the rest of the morning and only spoke to her about the case.

* * *

Maura had completed the autopsy of the woman who had been strangled in the hot sewers of the city. She'd learned that the victim had been recently submerged in a source of contaminated freshwater and had narrowed down the area to a few lakes in western Massachusetts. She needed to get samples of that water to help with the case. She had all the results that the detectives needed but she couldn't move her feet to bring them up to Jane.

"You want me to bring those up for you?" Susie offered kindly after she'd noticed that Maura was frozen again.

"...No," Maura eventually decided and she turned on her heel to walk out of the doors. She paused to thank Susie for the kindness and then she worked to perfect her resolve. She wasn't going to change the way she worked just because Jane hadn't given her the benefit of the doubt. She would behave exactly the same as she had been since she'd met the Detective and hope that the stubborn brunette would eventually give her a chance to explain. She strutted off the elevator and pretended to be calm and confident as she walked up to the cluster of desks where Jane was standing next to her seated team members.

"Okay, yeah, the yoga resort thing might help us with the case but you can't pretend to be interested in yoga!" Jane was sassing Korsak who put his hands on his belly and pretended to be offended. "You don't even know what Sun Salutation is, you think you can pretend to be _enlightened _for an entire afternoon?"

"No," Korsak conceded as he looked over Jane's shoulder winningly. "But I know somebody why could," he finished just as Maura stopped beside Jane and the brunette groaned and rolled her eyes.

"You can't have a _Chief_ _Medical Examiner _go get a statement from a suspect, that's _my _job!" Jane complained to her sergeant.

"Well," Frost smiled innocently, "maybe you could work together?" He suggested casually. The women both eyed each other cooly and Jane rolled her eyes to stare at the floor.

"What did you need my help with?" Maura asked Frost and Korsak.

"We got a lead that maybe the killer works at this yoga resort outta town but we don't have access to it without being yogis," Korsak explained.

"And Detective Frost is..?" Maura asked and Korsak turned his head to discreetly look at him to hint that Frost ought to pretend to be busy.

"Oh! Uh, working on another case!" He said.

"_What_ other case?" Jane asked in disbelief as she tried to get a look at his computer.

"It's need to know," Korsak lifted a hand to stop Jane.

"Fine, but we're taking separate cars," Jane stated in annoyance.

"Fine by me," Maura responded in equal frustration. Frost sent a quick text to Susie, who called their usual tow truck driver, Moe, to come to take Maura's car away from the building. Frost stood up and made his way over to the window as the women continued to bicker and he valiantly hid his glee as he watched Maura's car get pulled down the street.

"Oh no…" He turned to the women, "it looks like you'll have to ride together after all…"

"What?" "Why?"

They asked at the same time before they approached the window.

"Mother f-phooey," Maura caught herself swearing and Jane tried to pretend that she didn't find it adorable. "It _is _more economic to take one car…"

"Fine, but _I'm _driving," Jane declared.

"Why do you get to drive?" Maura complained.

"Because it's _my _undercover car and _I'm _an officer," Jane sassed. "And I hate the way you drive," she got in a low blow while she could and was pleased with the offended look she earned in return.

"Fine, where is the resort?" Maura asked and Korsak explained where it was. "That's odd…"

"What's _odd,_ Maura," Jane spat out in annoyance.

"I just got lab results indicating that our victim had been swimming in a lake close to that address," Maura stated curiously. "I wanted to go get samples anyway…"

"Yippee," Jane sassed before she turned to walk from the bullpen.

"Have fun, Maura," Frost waved and smiled innocently at the Doctor. She eyed him suspiciously before she turned to follow Jane into the car.

* * *

Maura sat quietly in the passenger seat of the car waiting for Jane to blow up at her but the explosion never came.

"Jane, can I just-" Maurs was cut off my Jane reaching up to crank the volume of the music on the radio so that Maura's words couldn't be heard. "Fine." Maura crossed her arms and stared out the window for their entire ride to the resort.

After discovering that the yoga resort was a front for a secret fracking operation, Jane and Maura started to put the pieces of the case together and thought they had it solved. They were heading back to the precinct to inform the team of what they found. That is until a large truck rammed into the driver's side and forced the car spiraling into a wooded ditch.

"You okay, Maur?" Jane asked as her police officer training kicked in.

"N-no, my leg," Maura groaned in pain, "my leg is stuck!" Jane looked down to see the ME's leg was pinched between the seat and her transmitter. She turned around again at the sound of bullets flying toward her car.

"You need to get out, Maura! Go!" Jane shouted and aimed her gun at their attackers. Maura noticed that Jane used her own body to shield the blonde as Maura tugged her leg free. The ME could see over Jane's shoulder and watched in a sort of fearful awe as Jane hit each of the three targets perfectly in their heads. Jane then reached for her phone and groaned at the dark, cracked screen. "Fuck!" She shouted but placed her phone in her pocket anyway.

"We need to move," Maura winced as she tried to walk on her hurt leg.

"Here," Jane moved beside the smaller woman and pulled one of Maura's arms around her own shoulders. "You hold onto me, I need to keep a clear shot, okay?" Jane explained and they started to amble through the bushes of the resort together. Maura valiantly lasted on her leg until daylight ran out and she finally collapsed with a painful cry to the forest floor.

"Uhh, this is _nothing _like laser tag," Maura complained and Jane laughed sadly at the comparison.

"Come on, Maur, I've seen Susie sew you up without anesthetic, you can do this!" Jane encouraged.

"I can't Jane, my leg, it's my leg," Maura complained.

"Okay, we haven't seen anyone in hours, let me see it… let's just hide down here first," Jane moved them to a natural dome in the ground so they wouldn't be seen by anyone in the vicinity, and then dropped to the ground next to her friend to remove the ME's boot. "Oh my God, Maura… your leg… it's all hard, it's like a corpse, jeez, what is that?" Jane prodded Maura's cold, black leg and started to panic slightly.

"It's compartment syndrome… the posterior artery must have ruptured in the crash," Maura explained through her pain.

"But we've been walking for hours!" Jane shouted.

"Jane, I need a fasciotomy," Maura explained.

"Then we need to get you to a hospital!" Jane shouted through her fear.

"We don't have time, I need it done now, Jane, right now," Maura put her hand on Jane's arm to try to calm the other woman and Jane stilled. The ME reached into her pocket and pulled out a nail file. "You need to make a six-inch incision here," Maura indicated to her inner calf as Jane's eyes widened, "and a five-inch on this side… just try not to hit the superficial peroneal nerve."

"Maura, I can't cut your leg off with a nail file!" Jane shouted, "I won't!"

"If you don't I am going to lose my leg, and I can't do it myself! I'll pass out!" Maura explained strongly. "I really like my leg, Jane."

"God, please don't make me do this!" Jane pitifully whined and Maura thrust the nail file into her hands.

"You can do it, just cut until the blood flows and stops being black… you can do this, I trust you," Maura spoke and then leaned back to wait for Jane to start. Jane groaned and held the nail file to Maura's leg. She winced as she thrust the metal into Maura's calf and started to cry as Maura's piercing scream filled the silence of the night. Maura writhed on the ground before she passed out from the pain.

"Oh God, Maura!" Jane looked on in shock, hopeful that Maura would wake up at all. "Pull it together Rizzoli!" Jane chastised herself and completed the emergency surgery on Maura's leg. She pulled her shirt off to wrap it around Maura's wounds and shivered as the cool night air hit her skin. "Come on, Maura…" Jane begged occasionally for the ME to wake up after she dressed the wounds. "Please wake up," she repeated, constantly aware of her surroundings and vigilant in her efforts of keeping Maura safe. "Come on… wake up, _please _wake up! Wake up and I'll listen to what you have to say about the guy, you know, Mr. Tall, dark and handsome? Wake up Maura and tell me all about it, I know you want to," Jane tried to bargain with Maura's unconscious brain and groaned when Maura, ever stubborn, did not wake up. That's when Jane heard the laughter.

"Finally," the main suspect in their case spoke, "tied em' up boys and let the water take them…" he ordered his crew, who walked down into the hole in the ground toward the women.

"Whatever you're doing you may as well give up," Jane argued, "I'll have every cop from here to Boston looking for me."

"Yeah, but not before the river takes you far, far away from here…" one of the henchmen spoke. They tied the women by their wrists and ankles to the stump of a tree and they smiled evilly at the sound of rushing water in the distance. "Our cue to leave," muttered the henchman.

"Jane looked on in panic as the men exited the dome and water took their place. It quickly began to fill up the small crater that they'd hidden in and she started glancing around for anything that might help them. Maura finally woke.

"You need to call your mother, Jane," Maura mumbled, "tell her that I didn't want to marry Ian… I want to marry you, can you tell Angela for me please?" Maura whined. "My leg hurts… why does my leg hurt?"

"Yeah, I'll use my phone," Jane muttered as she pulled the broken cell out of her pocket. She intended to break the screen further and use the glass to cut their ties. "Oh hey, it's on! Wait I can text with this! Ugh, the letters don't work," Jane complained as the water level rose.

"Type four, two, point, three, nine, one, zero," Maura spoke monotonously.

"_Thank _you, Maura," Jane snarked.

"Bing bing, boop boop, boop, bing bing, boop boop," Maura started to sound out the tones the keys made and Jane looked at her in proud shock.

"Is that… is that morse code? God, you're amazing," Jane stated and she texted the person she knew she could always rely on, the one person who she knew would always have her back, the person who'd saved her before.

"Morse shmorse," Maura murmured, "did you call your mother? Tell her that I love her. Tell her we're friends again… wait, I don't want to be your friend…" Maura pouted and Jane saw tears starting to leak out of her eyes. "You're my person, I don't love you like a friend."

"Shh, it's okay, Maur, I love you, too," Jane spoke and she dropped her cellphone into the large puddle of water surrounding them before she knew if her text had sent. She reached into the cool water and tried to find the nail file or her phone. It was no use. She was never so happy to hear Korsak's voice.

"Janie? Maura? You down there?"

"We're here, Korsak!" Jane shouted.

"Yaaaaaaaaaay," Maura hummed out.

"Are you okay?" Korsak rushed into the water and pulled out a pocket knife to cut the women free. "Those coordinates brought me almost right to you!"

"All her," Jane indicated to the ME before she reached down and scooped Maura up and held her, bride style, behind Korsak.

"The car is this way, what's wrong with her leg?" Korsak asked.

"I had to cut it open…" Jane winced at the memory and stared worriedly into Maura's pale face as she carried the smaller woman toward where Korsak was leading.

"She can't walk… and you stayed with her," he commented.

"I wouldn't leave her," Jane muttered out her truth. "I would never leave her." Maura stared up at the stars above them as her conscience tried to make sense of her surroundings. Maura knew exactly three things; that her leg hurt, that she was outside and that she was safe because Jane's arms were wrapped around her protectively, just as they should be.

* * *

"Frankie, come here!" Angela yelled into the house. "They're back from the hospital!"

Frankie moved toward the front door and saw Jane, Maura, and Korsak slowly ambling up the walkway.

"Here, Janie, I got her," he stepped in to take over for Jane in assisting Maura to the couch. Jane watched as her Seargent and brother guided the small blonde woman into the house and away from her. She entered reluctantly behind them and clenched her jaw tightly at the sight of a pine green duffle bag by the front door.

She stood awkwardly beside the couch as the guys sat Maura down and glared at the ground. She warred with herself internally as she debated if she ought to just leave or stay and make sure that Maura was settled comfortably like she wanted to. Her decision was made quickly at the sight of Ian entering through the back door and she turned to leave but her mother held her in place.

"Oh my God, Maura are you okay?" He walked across the room and stood on the other side of the couch. Maura sighed heavily and didn't open her eyes to the sound of his voice. She didn't want to acknowledge him and she was terrified to see what Jane looked like.

"I thought you were supposed to be gone by now," she spoke monotonously. She put no emotion into her words as she laid back into the cushions of her couch.

"But you're hurt and I'm a doctor, let me take care of you," he tried to reason with her and her eyes snapped open and she glared at him with the coldest look anyone had ever seen her wear.

"Learn to take no for an answer. I do not want you here and I do not need you to take care of me," she spoke coldly to him as the rage within her burned. She'd never been so angry in her life. "Take your supplies and go. It's the last batch… I won't be a part of that anymore."

"But how are the kids supposed to get medical supplies?" He argued with her pleadingly.

"The same way they did before we started this," she stated and he scoffed at her like she'd lost her mind.

"It's not enough, Maura, you _know _that!" He shouted and Jane instinctively stepped closer to the couch and glared at his audacity.

"That's how it works and it can't be my responsibility to fix the world! I have an entire Isles Foundation to donate to Doctors Without Borders. I don't need to keep smuggling medicine to Haiti, now get out and _don't _come back here until you've signed the papers!" Maura shouted at him and she was surprisingly threatening for someone who was wounded and unable to walk by herself.

"I don't even know who you are anymore!" Ian yelled and pulled an envelope out of his back pocket. He moved to Maura's table and scribbled on the piece of paper before he moved to the door and grabbed his bag. He turned to look at the strange group of people surrounding the woman he used to know. She was no longer the lonely woman he'd met in the field who was desperate for human connection. This Maura had a support system. This Maura didn't need him and he hated it. This Maura was confident and sure of herself and he detested the notion that he wasn't needed or wanted. "I hope whoever you're with is worth it." He spit aggressively before he turned and slammed the door behind himself. Maura's entire body relaxed back into the couch and she closed her eyes to the tears that threatened to fall.

"Are you okay, honey?" Angela asked Maura from where she still stood at Jane's side. The brunette could not deny that her family loved the blonde and she didn't have the heart to leave Maura without any kind of support so she remained quiet as her family comforted the ME.

"yes… my doctor was very impressed with Jane's incisions," Maura spoke only of her injuries. She refused to give any more of her time to talking about Ian on that day unless Jane herself asked.

"I _did _always want a doctor in the family," the Rizzoli matriarch wrapped her arm around Jane's middle and squeezed.

"Too bad you got two cops and a criminal," Frankie sassed and then glanced toward his sister.

"Nah," Jane disagreed and then looked at her mother, "I think you got a doctor too." She spoke quietly to her mother and then frowned. She was pissed at Maura and she still had no idea why that man had shown up and kissed the blonde. The fragments of conversation that she could piece together didn't make sense and she wanted to scream at the blonde for being so secretive. Instead, she shrugged out of her mother's grasp and turned to leave through the front door just as Ian had moments ago, sure that Maura still had all the comfort she could need.

"I'm going, okay?" Ian said as he waited near the end of the driveway for a cab. Jane froze. She had expected him to have left and she didn't know what to do. She wasn't comfortable leaving the ME's house until this man was gone from the premises. She figured she'd use her detective skills to drill him for information.

"Why did you come here?" Jane walked over to him confidently and spoke in the way she'd been trained to for getting information. Jane recalled a piece of information and decided to take a risk. "You in town to try your hand at more smuggling?" She asked and put her hand on her hip, exposing her gun and badge in the process. He glanced down at it and laughed humorlessly.

"If you're going to arrest me you'll have to arrest your friend in there too," he indicated to Maura's house and laughed at the confusion on Jane's face. "What, she didn't tell you she smuggled drugs out to Haiti and has a green card marriage?" He snarked out and a cab pulled into the street. "Some friend you are,"

"I'm not her friend," Jane stated and he looked at her in confusion. Realization dawned on his features and he glared at her before he scoffed and got into the cab. It was petty of her to say it but it made her feel better. She turned and opened the door to her cruiser. She glanced up and saw Maura standing in the window frame, anxiety etched onto her features. Jane considered going back into the house for a split second but decided she was still too angry to hear Maura out so she sat in the driver's seat and kept her breathing steady as she drove across town to her apartment.

Jane walked into her apartment and saw Maura everywhere. She saw the heels and the little running shoes that Maura had left there. She saw the decorative throw pillows Maura had gifted her as a joke. She saw the pothos plant Maura had given her. She noticed a pair of the ME's pajamas tucked into her drawer. She teared up at the extra toothbrush sitting next to hers on the counter in her bathroom. She thought she'd pieced the clues of Maura's secret together and she knew she would hear the ME out but she was still so angry that she'd been lied to. As she looked around her apartment though, she knew that Maura was a part of her life that she'd never turn her back on.

* * *

**Hope you like it so far. **


	23. Chapter 23

Maura spent the remainder of her week and weekend tending to her leg and trying to convince Angela that she was fine. It didn't take long for her to be up and walking. She spent her time meditating and doing yoga along with her physical therapy. Bass seemed to take it upon himself to keep her company. He seemed to notice the absence of the curly-haired Detective. He kept on finding Jane's loose socks and bringing them slowly to Maura who couldn't for the life of her figure out where the tortoise kept finding them.

"I miss her too," Maura spoke to her tortoise friend as she pulled yet another sock from his mouth, "but moping around and only thinking about her won't help anybody. You are a whole tortoise on your own and you don't need a cranky Detective to complete you," Maura spoke sagely to Bass who pulled into his shell to ignore her. She continued to read the medical journal she'd been perusing and jumped slightly when Angela spoke.

"You could just go over to her place and talk to her…" The eldest Rizzoli suggested as she made Maura a glass of tea.

"I'm fine here," Maura protested, "Jane will come to find me when she's ready to hear what I have to say. I'm not going to chase her around if she's not ready to listen to me yet."

"Well that's very independent and mature of you to say, but what if she doesn't come to find you? My Janie is one of the most stubborn people I know," Angela warned as she handed Maura the mug of tea.

"Next to me?" Maura asked with a smirk and Angela chuckled.

"Now that you mention it, yes," she confirmed and patted Maura's knee. "I just want my girls to be happy."

"I know, and I appreciate the concern but you don't have to worry," Maura stated calmy.

"How can you know?" Angela asked and Maura thought back to the glimpse she'd seen of her front window where she saw Jane approach Ian. She'd seen Jane get protective of her so many times that the body language was unmistakable. Jane had waited for Ian to be gone before she'd driven away. Jane had saved her leg in the forest instead of just abandoning her there. Jane had proven that she would literally rather have died with Maura in that yoga resort than abandon her there. Maura thought to the contemplative hesitancy on Jane's face as the Detective had glanced into the window of Maura's home. She saw understanding in Jane's eyes and although she was nervous about the conversation they would have next, she knew with certainty that there would at least _be _a conversation.

"How could I not?" Maura smiled warmly at the other woman and sipped her tea. "she's angry, and reasonably so, but we love each other more than how much we hate what happened... Is that what a healthy relationship it? Deciding whether or not the disadvantages outweigh the benefits?" Angela chuckled at the inquiry.

"Honey, I have no idea,"

* * *

"Let me make sure I understand this right," Jane paced in front of her couch as her mother and brother sat watching her. "So eight years ago, she marries this guy so that they can bring extra medical supplies to kids in Haiti. Okay, fine, I can understand that. And she told you that he would find her every couple of years or so to get more stuff from her and then he'd just… leave her behind?" Jane asked and her mother nodded. "Dumbass," Jane scoffed.

"Language, Jane," Angela chastised. Jane rolled her eyes and continued.

"And he kissed her because that's just how they used to do things before… before…"

"Before she met you, Janie," Frankie supplied for his sister.

"Right…" Jane pinched the bridge of her nose and huffed. "Well, I'm still pissed at her."

"But?" Angela prompted.

"There's no but… I'm pissed at her. We've known each other for a year, Ma! A _year!_"

"And does Maura know every single little detail about your past?" Her mother challenged.

"Yes!" Jane yelled.

"Oh, so you told her our brother got arrested for running over a priest?" Frankie sassed and Angela smacked him.

"Okay, no, she doesn't know _everything _but it's not because I'm hiding it from her. I would never have hidden something like _that!"_ Jane yelled into the air. "She's _married! _I'm not a homewrecker, Pop was a homewrecker and I am not like Pop." Jane furiously spoke and Angela scoffed at the comparison.

"It hardly counts as a marriage, Jane… It's been annulled. She said it right to his face that she never married him out of love…" Angela reasoned with her stubborn daughter and looked pointedly at Frankie for backup.

"Uh, yeah. Plus you're nothing like Pop. You didn't know anything about it, and _you _would never leave your wife behind to go and chase after some twenty-year-old floozy, sorry, Ma. The situations are completely different!" Frankie looked apologetically to his mother.

"Ha!" Angela laughed, "your father leaving was the best thing that coulda happened to us! Janie, don't you ever compare yourself to that man. You are a good, loyal person and I won't have a soul talk about my babies like that! Not even themselves, I don't want to hear another word about it!" Angela stood and gave Jane the meanest 'mom stare' that she could muster. Jane simply nodded and Frankie grinned. "Now get ahold of yourself and go talk to that poor woman! She's been talking to Bass nonstop and I'm pretty sure that poor turtle hasn't gotten a wink of sleep in days."

Tortoise," Jane corrected and Frankie smirked. "What?" She asked her brother.

"If you can admit that Bass is a tortoise do you think it _might _be possible for you to admit that Maura deserves to be heard out?" He asked his sister and Jane sighed.

"Fine," Jane admitted and she walked from her family to get dressed. She pulled her wardrobe open and looked between the suits she'd been wearing and her old ones which had remained largely ignored. She huffed and closed the door, electing instead to wear an old BPD t-shirt and a pair of worn jeans. She moved back into the living area and pulled her runners onto her feet.

"What? You're going now?" Frankie asked in surprise, "I thought we were gonna watch baseball!"

"This is more important than baseball, Frankie," Jane impatiently informed her brother before she left.

"Wow," Angela spoke in surprise at Jane's declaration.

"Yeah _wow_, the Sox are playing the Yankees."

* * *

Jane drove across town and pulled into Maura's driveway. She sat in her car for a minute while she gathered her thoughts. She took a steadying breath and closed her eyes as she prepared herself to step out into the unknown. She caught herself wringing her hands together and formed hard fists as she inhaled her last calming breath. She pulled on her mask of confidence as she finally exited the vehicle. She approached Maura's door and lifted her fist to knock but she hesitated and turned around. She began to pace around Maura's driveway and she ran her hands through her hair as she started muttering to herself. She hadn't noticed that the ME's windows were open, nor did she notice the small blonde open the front door and watch Jane try to burn a path into the asphalt.

"Get your shit together, Rizzoli," Maura heard Jane mutter to herself quietly, "you're gonna have to go in there eventually, it might as well be now… Ugh, this is so stupid, I'm going home… Nope, confront your dumb emotions, this needs to happen if you want to be with her... " Jane finally stopped debating with herself and turned toward her car for the final time. Her shoulders slumped and she moved to open the driver's door but Maura called out to her to stop her.

"Jane Clemintine Rizzoli, you will stop that incessant pacing right this minute and get in my house," the ME spoke confidently and Jane turned to stare at her in surprise.

"I _will?" _Jane tested. Maura had never spoken to her so forwardly before.

"Why else would you have come here?" Maura asked and then she backed up into the house, leaving Jane staring at the open door. Jane hesitated and then her entire head moved with her eye roll before she ambled up to the door. Maura was standing between the couch and the table, waiting for Jane to speak.

"You're married," Jane said factually.

"No, I _was _married," Maura admitted, "but I'm not anymore."

"You didn't tell me about it," Jane angrily stated, though she worked to keep her voice under control.

"No, I didn't," Maura spoke calmly and it angered Jane further.

"We've been together for eight months. I've known you for almost a year!" Jane accused. "_When _exactly were you going to tell me about this?"

"I tried!" Maura defended and Jane scoffed.

"When?!" Jane shouted.

"When we were shopping with your mother, I tried to tell you but I couldn't!" Maura yelled back.

"Oh yeah, tried _real _hard," Jane snarked and laughed bitterly. "You should have told me before we even started dating! You should have told me _any time _after that!"

"How, Jane?" Maura yelled, "how exactly was I supposed to tell my _law enforcement _best friend that I illegally smuggled drugs out of the country? How was I supposed to tell my girlfriend that I had a green card marriage? How could I even _begin _to explain it to you?" Maura used her hands as she spoke and Jane glared at her.

"How am _I _supposed to be able to trust you after this?" Jane asked in frustration. "How can I know that you're not secretly a part of the Irish mob? Is your name even Maura Isles? I don't even know! Is the Isles Foundation just a front for the fucking cartel? Who's to know?" Jane continued her frustrated yelling

"Jane," Maura said the singular word and the Detective heard an entire sentence in it.

"No," Jane pointed, "no, you don't get to tell me that I'm acting ridiculous, Maura, none of those things are crazier than you _lying _to me about being married."

"I didn't lie, Jane, I just couldn't-" Jane cut her off.

"Omission of the truth is still a lie, Maura, don't try to get out of this with loopholes! You don't use loopholes to lie to me and I don't lie to you at all! You promised never to lie!" Jane yelled and Maura felt tears beginning to fall down her cheeks.

"And you promised to never run from this!" Maura shouted back. "You walked in here and you saw a man I hadn't seen in over a year kiss me and you didn't even stay to give me the benefit of the doubt. You ran, Jane, you said you'd never run." Maura spoke through her tears.

"I run, Maura," Jane shouted, "I give everything I have or I give nothing at all. It's full throttle, full tilt ahead into danger or it's nothing and you're… you're supposed to be constant. You sure, and steady and consistent but when I saw him... I've never been so scared in all my life, Maura! I face serial killers and bullets and I stare down the barrel of a gun every other day, but this? This is more terrifying than anything I've ever had to face. I'm so tired of being afraid. How could you ask me not to run?"

"I didn't know how to ask for much for my whole life but, Jane, I'm done with that," Maura spoke confidently despite her tears, "I'm leaning in. I'm asking. I want this and I'm not afraid of it anymore, I'm only afraid to lose it, so you don't get to run just because you're scared too. You don't get to come in here and tell me that Rizzoli's don't give in to fear and turn away from this. You said that you're tired of being afraid? _I'M TIRED OF BEING AFRAID!_" Maura yelled, "Jane if you're zero or a hundred and I'm always going fifty, then we end up in the same place."

"You can't just solve this with math, Maura!" Jane scoffed out and glared at the other women.

"Jane, how could I have told you?" Maura fought through the ache in her chest so that she might explain. "I couldn't tell the only friend I'd ever had that I was a part of something she legally had to arrest me for. I couldn't tell you when we were friends because the thought of not having you in my life made me feel like my entire chest was hollow again and I couldn't go back to what my life was before I knew you, I just couldn't. I wasn't even thinking of Ian when we met or after we started dating. I hadn't thought of him in ages and I was going to send him annulment papers as soon as I found out where he was…" Maura ranted and then sighed. "I was going to tell you, I tried to tell you. The thought of losing you kept the truth inside and I know that it was wrong and selfish of me to keep this from you but he doesn't mean anything to me anymore… he never did." Maura admitted, "it's so _infuriating _that this man who means _nothing _to me could have the power to destroy the only relationship I've ever cared about. I wanted to tell you, Jane, but I was _so mad _that this inconsequential decision I made eight years ago could ruin the life I've built with you and the longer I waited the harder it got..."

"When?" Jane asked and Maura looked at her in confusion, "when were you going to tell me about him?"

"That night!" Maura yelled, "I spent the whole day cooking and cleaning and stressing about how I was going to tell you about him and then when we worked through that like we _should have _I was going to…" Maura sighed and her shoulders slumped.

"Going to what?" Jane prompted.

"I was going to ask you to move in with me, but now I've made a huge mess that I don't know how to clean up and youprobably hate me and I-"

"You were going to tell me about it that night?" Jane asked. Maura nodded and then gestured to the exposed skin of her chest to prove that she didn't have hives.

"I was going to tell you everything," Maura choked out before she covered her face in her hands and began to cry. Jane sighed and she moved forward to comfort the small blonde woman with a gentle hug and a kiss to the top of her head. Maura didn't dare reach out to hold Jane back. She knew that she didn't deserve to be comforted and so she stood there crying while Jane held her, waiting for the tears to slow.

"I kind of love that you get hives if you lie," Jane finally spoke and Maura choked out a laugh as Jane released her.

"You do? So you don't hate me?" She pleaded.

"Oh, I still hate you," Jane said, but Maura recognized the glint of humor in Jane's eyes. Jane was saying that she was still quite angry but that they would work through it together.

"Okay…" Maura breathed, "I'll work on hating you too," she tried to joke back and Jane chuckled slightly at the attempt of humor. "Did your mother make you come over?"

"She was worried you'd talked Bass's ears off… I know, turtles don't _have_ visible ears, I tried to tell her," Jane joked and Maura blushed.

"He's a very good listener," Maura explained and Jane chuckled. Maura smiled sadly at the sound of Jane's laugh. She hadn't heard it enough lately. "I miss you," she admitted to the Detective and Jane immediately pulled her into a tight hug.

"I missed you too," Jane admitted.

"Miss_ed?_" Maura asked, accentuating the past tense portion of the word.

"Yeah, you think I'm going anywhere else today?" Jane pulled out of the hug but maintained her hold on the smaller woman. "Maura, I'm pissed as all hell that you didn't tell me about Ian, but it's not worth losing you over. I'm angry that you didn't tell me about everything but… I understand why you couldn't." The Detective admitted and she put her hand to the side of Maura's cheek. "I'm not exactly the _easiest _person to talk to about this kind of thing… I know why you felt like you couldn't tell me, and I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Jane! _I _was the one who got us into this whole mess!" Maura tried to argue but Jane was having none of it.

"Yeah, maybe that's true enough but it's also true that I should work on being less explosive. I'm not saying that what you did was okay, or that it's my fault, I'm just saying that it takes two people to make a relationship work and with this… with us… I always want to give my all." Jane spoke resolutely and Maura nodded in agreement.

"I'll never hide anything from you again, I promise," Maura said as she reached up with her pinky. Jane took it and accepted the promise for what it was; the truth.

"So what other kinds of illegal activities have you engaged in?" Jane asked, expecting Maura to say none.

"Well, at BCU I rode horseback across the football field, completely nude, in protest to the budget cuts for the equestrian team," Maura began, "I technically stole those water samples we took from the lake at the yoga resort, and once when I was six I tried to steal Sherry Robinson's stuffed stegosaurus, but I gave it back when I saw how sad she was." Maura finished her extensive rap sheet and Jane tried not to smile down at the smaller woman.

"Nude? In front of the whole school?" Jane asked and Maura shrugged as she nodded. "Go, Doctor Isles," Jane joked and the entire atmosphere around them shifted from sad and anxious into their usual dynamic of fun and laughter.

"I kind of love that you can do that," Maura stated and they both understood that she was talking about Jane's almost supernatural ability to shift people's moods.

"Well… Then I hate you a little bit less," Jane grinned down at Maura.

"Jane, do you know how long you're going to hate me for?" The small blonde asked and Jane could see the worry creep back into the ME's features.

"It's too soon to tell," Jane responded honestly. "But we'll get through it."

"I used to like Ian a lot, but I love you… and I _hate _it when you hate me. So there's nothing I'd ever do to purposefully compromise our relationship," Maura spoke resolutely and Jane didn't have to check for hives to know that Maura was being honest.

"Good, cause' I hate it when I have to hate you," Jane joked. "I'm tired, Maura, can we go to bed?" Jane asked.

"You want to stay here?" Maura asked in surprise.

"Yeah, that okay? Or are you gonna go on some big speel about going to bed angry or whatever?" Jane asked.

"Well I'm no longer angry, so unless you're harboring resentment towards me still, I see no negatives to your request. I was just surprised, that's all," Maura explained.

"Didn't think I was emotionally mature enough for this, did ya?" Jane joked and Maura scoffed.

"I am pleasantly surprised," Maura admitted and Jane shook her head.

"Let's go to sleep, Maura, I just want to hold you," Jane said and she grabbed Maura's hand to lead the smaller woman to the bed that they'd shared more often than not over the last year.

"For you, Jane… anything," Maura admitted and allowed the brunette to pull her up the stairs so they could fall asleep in each other's arms… just as they both wanted… just as is should always be.

They spent the rest of their weekend calmly discussing where they wanted their relationship to go, how they could avoid and repeat offenses, what they wanted and needed from each other and how they would work to ensure the relationship would last. It was the kind of talk neither of them had before but they both found that despite the more awkward elements it entailed, they were both happy by the end of the weekend.

* * *

Jane sat at her desk on Monday morning and cursed the little cafe Maura had gotten her addicted to for having such a long line up. No coffee Jane was not a person that she would wish on her worst enemy. She smiled brightly as Frost walked into the precinct holding a cup of coffee for himself and an extra.

"I have never been so happy to see you in my life," Jane said to her partner as he sat at his desk. He saw her eyeing the drink and he smiled guiltily.

"Oh uh… This isn't for you, Jane… It's for Frankie," Frost admitted and he smiled apologetically to his friend.

"...I knew that..." Jane lied and Frost chuckled. As if talking about her brother could summon him, Frankie walked into the bullpen and Jane was pleased to see that he was _also _holding two cups of coffee.

"Tell me _one _of those is for me," Jane pleaded and her brother looked at her as if she were a rude, begging child.

"No, keep your grubby hands off, Jane, I got this for Barry," Frankie spoke to his sister and then looked over to his friend. He spotted the two coffees sitting in Frost's desk and they looked at each other and grinned.

"Well, _this _is just perfect!" Jane clapped and stood from her chair. She maneuvered the four coffees around in the most complicated possible way and the men looked at her curiously. "There, now Frankie bought Frost a coffee, Frost bought Frankie a coffee, and Jane gets the much needed extra coffee!" She explained.

"Who is the fourth one for?" Frost asked and Jane scoffed.

"Me, definitely for me," Jane joked, but both men could see it in her face that she'd probably need both. "I barely slept last night," She complained.

"I guess you and Maura made up then, huh?" Frost poked fun at her and she and Frankie both blushed.

"Ew, what the hell, dude?" Frankie complained and smacked Frost's shoulder.

"As a matter of fact we did," Maura said as she clicked into the bullpen. Jane dropped her face in her hands and muttered.

"Oh my God, why? Why me?" She complained much to Frost's amusement.

"Well I'm glad to see that you two are back to your regular old selves," Frost claimed, "any… _other _news? He questioned, thinking of the ring he knew was somewhere.

"Yes!" Maura said excitedly. "Jane agreed to move into my house! I'm quite excited about it!" She bounced on the spot in excitement and Jane's embarrassment flooded away. Frost looked confused.

"Yeah? That's all?" He asked and Frankie smacked him again.

"What do you mean, 'that's all,' this is a rather large step in any relationship," Maura spoke to him in equal confusion.

"Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I am so happy for you," Frost said before he moved to hug Maura and kiss her on the cheek.

"Better stop it there Frost, I wouldn't wanna have to kick your ass," Jane joked and the group laughed.

"Think you could take me, Rizzoli?" He nudged her shoulder and she laughed. She'd seen him down three people at least two feet taller than himself and knew that he had hand-to-hand combat training from his Father.

"Not in a million years," Jane laughed.

"Bet I could give you a run for your money," Frankie cockily stated and Frost grinned at Jane mischievously.

"You wanna bet on that, _Junior_?" Frost asked flirtatiously and Frankie smiled.

"Yeah, you're on, name the price, Barold," Frankie sassed back.

"I happen to be a fan of Chockerkin..." Frost began.

"No, no anything but that," Frankie pleaded.

"I named my price, Rizzoli, take it or admit that I'm both stronger _and _cooler than you," Frost smirked.

"Wrestling mat, 20 minutes, winner keeps Chockerkin action figure," Frankie spoke threateningly.

"You're on," Frost agreed and they shook hands. Frankie left and Jane turned to smack Frost even though she was laughing.

"You are _so _gonna kick his ass!" She chastised him.

"Yeah, but I really wanted that action figure," Frost reasoned and he left to change too, leaving the women to themselves, alone in the bullpen.

"Did you get this for me?" Maura asked as she indicated to a cup of coffee," Jane looked down and grinned.

"Nah, Frost and Frankie got it," she informed the blonde and Maura leaned primly on the edge of Jane's desk. She noticed Jane's eyes glance down her legs and smirked. They hadn't been this close to each other for so many days without having sex since… well, their entire relationship. Maura reached out to caress Jane's jawline until the Detective looked up into Maura's eyes.

"I missed you," she said to Jane.

"Yeah, I know, you said that-"

"No," Maura cut her off, "I _missed _you," she reiterated suggestively and Jane's eyes widened in understanding. Jane stood from her chair and caressed Maura's cheekbone until she tangled her long fingers into the ME's soft blonde hair. She leaned down into the kiss and Maura released a whimpering sigh at the contact. Nature overcame her and she opened her mouth to the kiss and rested one hand on Jane's hip, leaving the other pressed firmly to Jane's heart. Their tongues rubbed softly together as their kiss deepened. It had a passionate tenderness that they hadn't expected from the kiss but both enjoyed. They pulled away from each other and simply gazed into each other's eyes for a few moments.

"Well I guess this is a good a time as any to give you this," Angela Rizzoli spoke from the doorway and Jane jumped.

"Ma, what the _hell!_" Jane shouted.

"You will watch your language, missy!" Angela suggested bossily. "I just came by to give you this," Angela handed a gift-wrapped object to Maura and the ME eyed it curiously. "It's for both of you."

"Thank you, Angela, you didn't need to go to the trouble to get us anything," Maura spoke.

"Yeah, what's the occasion?" Jane eyed her mother suspiciously and she considered the gift.

"Just open it!" Angela waved them off and Jane let Maura do the honors of opening it. It was a black and white image of the two of them. The Detective was laying on Maura's couch and the ME was tucked under the brunette's chin. It was hard to tell if they were sleeping or just blissfully taking in the other's presence. Jane's lips were slightly smiling and Maura's eyes, though closed, had the laugh line to indicate she'd recently been smiling. On the bottom right corner of the image, the toe tag that Maura had given Jane with the phrase "It ain't over till it's over" written on it was placed under the glass. On the left side, the sunshine plumeria the ME had brought Jane was also added to the image. Jane turned to look underneath the mousepad and gasped when it wasn't there. She didn't think anybody knew about it.

"How did you know about the-"

"I'm friends with Suzane, the night janitor," Angela waved off.

"Angela, this is so thoughtful!" Maura stated. "Where did you find my note?"

"Uhh, I found it on the turtle…" Angela said in confusion. "I swear the little guy knows everything."

"He is a wise soul," Maura agreed and Jane laughed.

"When did you take this?" Jane asked. Maura's hair looked much shorter in the image.

"A few months ago before you told me you were together," Angela smirked and Jane looked at her in surprise.

"And you didn't want to ask why your daughter was cuddled up on the couch with another woman?" Jane asked, surprised that her mother had been so discreet.

"Well," Angela began, "you just looked so happy and so peaceful. I wanted the two of you to be together and I figured that if you _were_ you would tell me when you were ready." Angela shrugged and Jane smiled appreciatively at her.

"Where do you want to put it?" Jane asked the ME.

"Wherever I'll see it the most!" Maura said excitedly.

"Your office it is!" Jane said happily. She also spent a lot of time in the room.

"I also wanted to tell you something…" Angela began carefully.

"Ah! There's the occasion!" Jane pointed to her mother.

"Jane," Maura laughed out and glanced lovingly at the Detective.

"It's not _bad_," Angela defended. "I got a new job!"

"What? Ma! That's great!" Jane exclaimed and then hugged her mother. "Where is it?"

"Here!" Angela said brightly and Jane laughed.

"Ma, you can't work for the BPD!" Jane chuckled out.

"No, not the BPD… The Cafe!" Angela squealed in delight, "Stanley offered me a job as the full-timer!"

"Congratulations, Angela!" Maura smiled warmly to the elder woman.

"Great job, Ma." Jane complimented. "Now I guess I'll have to suffer through bunny pancakes at work, too." She joked and Angela scowled at her.

"You think you're such a comedian." Angela chastised. "Well, I have to go to my new job! See you girls later!" Angela left quickly and the women were still admiring the gift as Frost and Frankie rejoined them.

"So, who is the superior specimen?" Maura asked and Jane laughed. Frankie and Frost both blushed furiously and avoided looking at each other

"Can you read what their faces are doing right now?" Jane leaned in to ask the ME.

"Yes," Maura confirmed, "they are both quite embarrassed." Frankie rubbed his eyes at Maura's assessment and Frost moved to sit at his desk in an attempt to hide.

"You gonna tell us what's going on here, or?" Jane started.

"No, and don't ask," Frankie sassed before he left the room. Frost looked after him and leaned his head back in frustration.

"I'll leave you to it," Maura said sweetly to Jane and the ME kissed her one more time before she left.

"What the hell happened between you and my brother?" Jane asked as she sat across from her friend.

"Ugh, I _really _don't think I should talk to my partner about this," He groaned.

"How bout you talk to a friend about it then?" Jane suggested with a smile. "Cmon, Frost, you know all of _my _crap."

"Oh, and what a pile it is," He responded playfully.

"_So _not the point right now!" She tossed a pencil at him and he laughed.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," Frost raised his arms. "So we were gonna scuffle, right? And I figure I should be a good guy and let him pick the medium he's the most comfortable with, right?" Frost paused to make sure Jane was following along and he continued at her encouraging nod. "We're just having fun instead of fighting at first really but then he pulls a full one-eighty on me and pins me to the ground and then we…" Frost trailed off and looked embarrassedly down.

"You what, Frost, Jesus!" Jane exclaimed.

"Well, he kind of just leaned down and," Frost paused to shrug and grin slightly, "he kissed me."

"Frankie kissed you?" Jane asked with a huge smile on her face. "That's so great!"

"You're not surprised to hear that your little bro kissed a grown-ass man?" Frost looked at her in shock and she laughed.

"Hell no!" Jane chuckled, "that boy's been pining after you for months!" Jane tossed out and realization dawned on Frost's face.

"_That's _why he's been acting so weird!" He said exasperatedly. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Hey man, I didn't even know he liked men until he started liking you, and we both know it's not my place to interfere," Jane raised her hands. "I'm happy he kissed you though. Oh fuck, did you even like it?"

"Yeah," Frost chuckled. "It was… nice," he decided.

"I want no more detail than that, thank you!" Jane informed him. "Why were you acting all weird after that though?" Frost groaned and shook his head as if attempting to free himself of whatever shame he was feeling.

"Because… because Korsak walked in and spilled his tea at the sight of us which made every other officer in the gym look over and start whistling at us," Frost rushed out and Jane laughed hysterically. She was almost beginning to get ahold of herself when Korsak himself entered the bullpen and fresh tears began to leak out of her eyes as she began to laugh again.

"You told her?!" Korsak yelled accusingly at Frost and then the younger Detective began to laugh as well.

* * *

"Wow," Susie looked across the autopsy table to her friend. "I never would have taken you for the kind of person to have a secret green card marriage and smuggle medicine out of the country."

"Yes, but we worked through it and Jane's moving it!" Maura stated excitedly.

"That's so great!" I'm happy for you both. That picture Jane's mother gave you is quite adorable," Susie complimented and Maura blushed.

"I'm very lucky to have them both," Maura stated, "and Frankie too. Oh, and Barry and Vince, and you Susie! I'm lucky to have you all!" Maura smiled and Susie laughed.

"Yeah, well, we're lucky no to have to deal with Pike," Susie joked. "We're lucky to have you too, you know?" Susie made sure the ME knew it to be the truth that it was and the blonde grinned.

"Thank you. Now! What would you like to learn today?" Maura asked excitedly.

"Let's examine his brain," Susie suggested excitedly and Maura smiled at the eagerness of the other woman.

"And then the intestines?" Maura asked hopefully.

"Ooo! Yes!" Susie nodded and Maura smiled. They were the strangest of friends.

* * *

"You're home!" Jane shot off the couch and ran to the kitchen to pull something out of the oven. "I made dinner!"

"You made dinner?" Maura questioned from the doorway. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Shuddup," Jane sassed as she brought the food to the table. She'd set it up the same way Maura had it before Ian had arrived.

"Awe, Jane, you didn't have to do this," Maura said as she looked on in awe.

"I know, I wanted to though," Jane shrugged and poured two glasses of wine. "I was looking forward to that dinner, you know."

"You're always looking forward to dinner," Maura teased.

"That is not the point," Jane sassed back and then pulled a chair out for Maura.

"Why thank you," Maura smiled as she sat.

"Anything for you, darling," Jane spoke poshly back and Maura grinned. She loved what a goofball Jane was. "What took you so long to get home?"

"I was showing Susie the organs of one of the corpses in the morgue," Maura said. "We were having fun and didn't realize that so much time had passed." She explained and Jane snorted in laughter.

"Of course that's what you were doing," Jane laughed out. "God, I love you." Maura's eyes softened and she reached to hold Jane's hand from across the table.

"I love you, too. I would say I loved you with my whole heart, but it's actually easily measured by changes in the biochemistry of the brain. Saying I love you with my whole brain doesn't sound correct either though…" Maura mused aloud and Jane smiled as the small blonde woman sorted through her thoughts. "I suppose I love you with both." Maura finally stated.

"You love me with all of your organs?" Jane teased and Maura laughed.

"Yes, I love you with _all _of my organs, and chemicals too!" Maura verified and Jane chuckled.

"These came in the mail today," Jane handed Maura an envelope and Maura looked at it curiously before she gasped.

"Jane this is-"

"I know," Jane interrupted.

"I'm officially not married," Maura said as her eyes scanned the pages.

"How do you feel?" Jane asked.

"The same I think… I was never _really _married," Maura reasoned.

"Do you want to be?" Jane asked as casually as she could.

"What?" Maura asked.

"Do you want to be married?" Jane reiterated.

"Are you asking?" Maura scoffed out.

"No, I'm not like, _asking _asking, I'm just… asking," Jane explained. "Do you ever want to be married again?"

"Only if it's to you, my love," Maura smiled and blew Jane a kiss.

* * *

**And just like that, all was right with their world again... for now. :) **


	24. Chapter 24

**Throwing our ladies for one last loop before they can _really _****learn and accept everything about each other. **

* * *

Jane groaned and stretched in the empty bed in Maura's room. She heard the shower running and decided to go downstairs to make coffee. She got two mugs ready and set them under Maura's coffee maker as she hummed the intro to '_The Jetsons.' _She had gotten in the habit of thinking about the show whenever she used the coffee maker. The sound of Jane humming in the kitchen spurred Bass to life and he crawled out from underneath the coffee table to go see his second favorite person in the world. He quietly shuffled over to Jane and bit the hem of her pants to get her attention.

"Well, good morning to you too," Jane spoke as she finished making her coffee. She squatted to sit on the ground next to Bass and gently began to trace the designs of his shell. He poked his head out to show interest in her coffee cup and she chuckled. "I'm sure Maura would tell you about a hundred reasons why you can't have this," Jane reasoned with him. She reached onto the counter to pull a strawberry out of his bowl of treats and put it on the floor in front of him. He ate while she drank coffee and patted his shell. "I missed you too, little buddy."

"It's good to see you two are finally getting along," Maura commented. Jane hadn't heard the ME come down the stairs.

"Yeah, well what can I say? He's easy to get along with," Jane shrugged. "He doesn't talk back."

"No, he just silently judges you," Maura joked.

"I made your coffee for you," Jane pointed to the mug on the counter and Maura walked over to take it. She then kneeled down on the ground on Bass's other side and smiled down at her tortoise. "What are we going to do when he's two hundred pounds and can't fit through the doorways anymore?" Jane asked and Maura grinned at her, surprised that Jane had remembered the fact about African spurred tortoises weight possibilities.

"Get a bigger place, I guess," Maura laughed and Bass looked gratefully at her. "That should be the last strawberry he eats this week… you can give him cactus pads if you'd like to, though," Maura smiled at Jane and the Detective blushed.

"Hey, I just gave him the strawberry as a thank you for taking care of you while I was gone," Jane said in defense and Maura laughed.

"Yeah? It has nothing to do with you missing him?" Maura asked.

"Absolutely not," Jane lied as she continued to trace the patterns of his shell. He thought Jane's sarcasm was entertaining. In the moment of bliss, both women were surprised to hear that it was Maura's phone to interrupt them.

"Doctor Isles," she answered, "I'll be there soon," Maura hung up and glanced apologetically at Jane, they both waited for the next phone to ring.

"Rizzoli," Jane grumbled, "Yeah, be right there," she hung up. "Well, so much for a Sunday off, huh?" She chuckled out.

"I can see in the muscles of your face that you're excited, Jane," Maura teased as she finished her coffee. "You don't need to pretend not to be, I'm excited to work too," Jane stood up with a grin and helped the ME to her feet.

"You're the perfect woman," Jane complimented and kissed Maura's cheek.

* * *

When Jane walked onto a crime scene the energy of the entire area changed. Whoever used to be in charge was no longer the one people looked to and her long, powerful strides to the scene showed a kind of ownership over the domain. It was easy to see that she was in her element.

Maura's sure direction as she walked toward where she was needed left onlookers in a state of awe. Her face was an impenetrable mask of professionalism. Maura was equally as confident as Jane and the well-coordinated direction she gave to her colleagues was impressive to everyone who witnessed it.

Alone, each woman's presence at a crime scene changed the entire dynamic of the case but when they exited a vehicle at a crime scene together... when they stepped under the yellow police tape lines as a team, their coworkers struggled to understand why anybody would commit murder at all knowing that these two women were on the job. When Jane and Maura strutted confidently toward the corpse of a crime scene every onlooker got a distinct impression that the case was already solved.

"What do we got?" Jane asked Frost as she entered the house and Maura went to examine the body of a man who was bound with zip ties.

"Definitely foul play," Frankie said as he walked into the house.

"Stop jumping to conclusions like that or you'll never make Detective," Jane chastised him.

"No, he's right, Jane," Maura spoke from across the room. "His carotid artery was punctured with a small, sharp blade. It's odd though, there's not nearly enough blood here… it is possible that he was killed somewhere else and moved here." Maura assessed and Frankie grinned at his sister who rolled her eyes at him having been right.

"Oh God," Frost muttered before he covered his mouth with his hand.

"Come on, Frost," Frankie spoke and clapped the other man on the shoulder. "It's not that bad, come here." Frankie indicated that Frost should follow him closer to the body and Jane was surprised to see Frost listened. "Don't worry, Maur, I won't touch anything," Frankie courteously explained to Maura before he used his hands to block Frost's view of the wound. "See, Frost? It's not so bad if you just see this part of him, right?" Frankie asked and Frost shook his head to agree. The younger Rizzoli exposed a little bit more of the wound and looked to see that Barry was still doing okay. Frankie slowly exposed more and more of the wound to the Detective and Maura watched Frankie proudly. The younger Rizzoli finally removed his hands completely from blocking Frost's view and he smiled over to the Detective. "Not so bad, huh?"

"Not so bad," Frost agreed, "Thanks, Frankie."

"Yeah, of course," Frankie shrugged and blushed as he caught his sister grinning at him. "Alright, I'm gonna go do crowd control, yell at me if you need anything."

"_Anything?_" Jane asked him and she indicated to Frost suggestively to tease her brother.

"Oh, shuddup," Frankie sassed before he left. Barry and Maura missed the exchange because Maura was too busy pointing to the would and explaining what had happened to the man. Jane was pleased to see that Frost was holding himself together well. Jane began to intake the rest of the scene. Something purple caught the corner of her eye and she leaned down next to the couch to see what it was.

"Hey, hand me a glove, Maur?" Jane requested and Maura followed the request. Jane snapped the glove on and reached under the couch to pull out a shockingly purple petunia. She held it up to show Maura and the ME gasped.

"Please tell me your intestine thinks that's a coincidence," Maura pleaded and Jane solemnly shook her head in the negative. "The zip ties… the puncture wound to the carotid… Jane, a petunia?" Maura listed the similarities between this murder and connected it with Casey Jones's case. "What does it mean?"

"I don't know, Maur," Jane admitted, "but I'm sure as hell gonna find out."

"You think we have a copycat?" Frost asked as he put the pieces together.

"Can't be… we left the details about the flowers out of the press," Jane explained and Maura's eyebrows drew together in concern.

"Did we ever find out where Casey had gotten the flowers from?" Maura asked and Frost shook his head.

"Looks like Casey had an apprentice," Jane said with forced calm.

"You think he was working with a partner when he kidnapped Maura?" Frost asked Jane and the Detective shrugged.

"He never mentioned a partner when I was in that basement with him," Maura informed them.

"Somebody bag this and go get Frankie," Jane commanded and one of the lab techs took the flower from Jane and another beat cop went to get her brother.

"You want coffee?" Frankie asked as he reentered the house.

"I wish," Jane scoffed. "Listen, we think this case might be connected to Casey Jones somehow. He might have had a partner or an apprentice and until I know for sure who did this I need you to stay with Maura, okay?" She asked and Frankie nodded.

"Of course!" He said and he immediately moved to stand beside the ME as she paused her examination.

"Jane, you don't need to-" The Detective cut off the ME.

"No, the last time this was happening I left you alone in the morgue for less than an hour and you could have died, Maura, I'm not gonna risk that again," Jane spoke resolutely. There was no arguing with this Jane. "I can't be the one to guard you and I don't trust anybody more than Frankie, so just deal with it, okay?" Maura smiled slightly at how much Jane cared for her.

"Thank you, Frankie," Maura said and the younger Rizzoli waved her off.

"Best job I've had all week," he complimented.

"Who's going to make sure _you're _safe?" Maura asked Jane and the Detective opened her mouth to argue but Frost cut her off.

"Me, obviously. She's my partner and my friend," he spoke to Maura and ignored Jane as she no doubt wanted to argue that she didn't need protection. "I won't let anything happen to her and I won't let her do anything stupid," he grinned at the ME and then looked pointedly to Jane who rolled her eyes.

"When have _I _ever done something stupid?" She asked and as her three team members opened their mouths to start listing off time's she'd been reckless, she raised her hands to quiet them. "Okay, okay, Frost can babysit me," she sassed and Maura nodded.

* * *

Jane stood beside Maura as the blonde checked swabs of material under one of the lab microscopes. Frankie sat on one of the stools and spun slightly while Susie worked on the vic's dental records.

"So, do we know how he died yet?" Jane asked impatiently. Maura sighed and ignored her.

"Leave her alone, Jane," Frankie said in Maura's defense. "Why isn't Frost with you, I thought he was supposed to be babysitting you."

"He was, he took the elevator down with me. Apparently I have to stay here until he gets back with Korsak," Jane rolled her eyes and Frankie frowned slightly. "Why do you ask, do you miss your _boyfriend?_"

"He's not my boyfr- Okay, why am I talking about this with you?" Frankie stood from his stool and scowled at Jane. "Susie, will you keep an eye on Maura for a few minutes?"

"Of course!" Susie smiled.

"Oh, come on, Frankie, I was just kidding!" Jane called after her brother as he left the morgue to stand and wait for the elevator.

"You should go apologize to him…" Maura looked up from her microscope to gaze at Jane.

"I'm in the middle of a case… I'm waiting for you to get me results!" Jane argued.

"Well it's going to take some time for me to get anything, especially with you interrupting my process every five seconds," Maura argued and Jane rolled her eyes.

"I did my gumshoe thing, it's the least you can do to get me some science!" Jane sassed. The ME did not like to be rushed. Maura straightened her back and turned away from her work completely. She lifted her chin to stare directly into Jane's eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. It was a pose that dared Jane to continue.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Jane stammered.

"Waiting for you to leave," Maura responded resolutely and glanced pointedly toward the door.

"You're being ridiculous," Jane grinned and argued, thinking at first that Maura was joking. When the ME smiled and raised her eyebrows right back at Jane, the Detective's face fell and she pouted when she realized that Maura was serious.

"...Fine, bye," Jane muttered and walked away, glancing over her shoulder with a pout that Maura tried not to find adorable. Jane caught up with her brother in the hallway and grabbed his arm to make him turn to face her.

"Hey, Frankie, I'm sorry," Jane stated and Frankie rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I know…" He stated sadly.

"Wanna tell me what's up?" Jane tried to make her brother open up and the younger Rizzoli sighed.

"I don't know. Did he tell you what happened in the gym?" Frankie asked and Jane hesitated before she nodded. "Okay, well we haven't had the chance to talk since that happened and I don't know how he took it…"

"He said he liked it," Jane said, "he said it was nice, and no, I did not ask for more detail than that," Jane joked to ease some of the tension.

"Well, then why hasn't he brought it up?" Frankie asked his sister.

"Well, you kissed him, right? Maybe he's waiting for you to talk about it since you're the one who started it," She reasoned. "Or _maybe_ we all have really busy lives and he just hasn't had a chance yet." The elevator doors dinged open to reveal Frost and Korsak.

"I thought you were supposed to be watching Maura," Korsak spoke to Frankie.

"Susie is watching her, plus she's right there, I can see her," Frankie defended himself as he pointed through the glass doors that lead to the morgue.

"He knows what he's doing," Frost defended Frankie to Korsak who shrugged. Frankie tried not to blush.

"Alright, you guys here to get me?" Jane interrupted.

"Yeah, coffee first?" Frost suggested and Jane stepped directly onto the elevator at the suggestion.

"God, yes," She joked and her team chuckled. "See you later, Frankie."

"Yeah, come see me if you get a chance," Frost smiled at him and Frankie felt his cheeks heat up. The younger Rizzoli nodded before the lift's doors closed and he went back to making sure Maura was safe.

* * *

"I've identified the victim," Maura said as she and Frankie walked into the cafe where Jane, Korsak, and Frost were getting coffee.

"Yeah? Who is he?" Frost asked.

"Zachary Brown, a former teacher," Maura explained, "he and his wife Elanor went missing last year."

"Last _year?_" Jane asked in surprise, "but his wounds were fresh, weren't they?"

"It was hard to tell, the autopsy indicated that he'd been frozen to death but I have no way to detect how long he stayed frozen. His wounds occurred post-mortem, which could explain the lack of blood at the scene. His wounds were inflicted after he'd thawed."

"That's disgusting," Frost said as he grimaced at the display of food in the cafe. Korsak smiled at him and bit into a jelly donut.

"What about the wife?" Jane asked.

"She was never found," Frankie said, "think she could be part of it?"

"I'm not ruling anything out, let's get a photo of her and put out a fresh BOLO," Jane said. A small blonde woman walked into the cafe with Angela and the Rizzoli matriarch smiled at the sight of her children.

"Frankie! Just who I wanted to see!" Angela claimed brightly.

"Yeah?" He asked, "why's that?"

"I wanted to introduce you to my new friend, Dana!" Angela smiled and Frankie looked to the small blonde who stood beside his mother. At a quick glance, she could almost be mistaken for Maura and Frankie looked at his mother like she was crazy. He stuck his hand out politely to the woman despite his discomfort.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Frankie," he smiled politely.

"Dana," She stuck out her hand and smiled back at him. "Your mother tells me you're on your way to becoming a detective?" She flirted with him and Frost leaned to mutter into Jane's ear.

"If your mom is trying to set up all her kids with hot blonde women, you should prepare her to be _very _disappointed" He joked and Jane elbowed him.

"You jealous?" Jane muttered back and Frost scoffed.

"I thought you could show her around the precinct a bit before her shift starts, she'll be working for me now!" Angela said brightly and Frankie blushed.

"Well, I have to keep an eye on Maura," Frankie stated.

"Why? She's a grown woman, she can take care of herself," Angela pressed.

"Well, because-" Frankie went to inform his mother of the case but Jane kicked him.

"No reason!" She interrupted. She did not want her mother to know that someone might have been stalking her again, "You go on ahead and show her around, Frankie, I want to ask Doctor Isles about the lab results anyway," Jane waved him off and he sputtered. Frankie looked toward Frost and shrugged in apology.

"Let's go," Jane spoke, "See ya later, Ma," she waved as her team left to go to the bullpen. They sat at their cluster of desks and tried to theorize about what all the current evidence meant.

"Man, we need to get someone to look into all those flower shops again to see if we can find anything," Korsak groaned and Jane rubbed her eyes.

"I had no luck last time," Frost complained.

"Put a newbie on it," Jane waved off and Frost grinned. He pulled out his cellphone and pressed a couple of buttons. Jane saw an image of her brother's face light up on Frost's screen before he held the phone to his ear.

"Are you calling him just to get him away from Dana?" Jane teased.

"Uhh… No?" Frost said in defense of himself.

"_Sure,_ you're not jealous," Jane chided and Maura tried to hide her grin while Korsak laughed.

"No, I'm not," Frost argued as the phone rang. "I'm _not _jealous, Jane, I just have a weird feeling about Dana, that's all!"

"Yeah, it's called _jealousy_," Jane chuckled. "Don't be embarrassed, it's just evolution making you want to protect him from other people of interest," Jane explained and Maura smiled at the fact that Jane had remembered her explanation of jealousy. Frost frowned as Frankie's phone went to voicemail. "They're probably in the elevator," Jane suggested. "What do you know about our vic's wife, Elanor?" Jane turned to ask Maura.

"Nothing, just that they went missing last year," Maura informed her.

"When last year?" Korsak asked.

"A few days after you started back at work, Jane," Frost informed the brunette as he typed on his computer.

"Okay, so it definitely has something to do with Casey," Jane mused aloud. "A couple goes missing a few days after Maura and I meet, the same time Casey started to fly off the rails, and now we find the husband with Casey's exact wounds _with _a purple petunia?" Jane shook her head. "It's all connected somehow…"

"Oh no," Frost breathed, "I think I know how it's all connected…" He said cryptically before Maura moved to look at his computer screen and gasped.

"What is it?" Jane asked impatiently. Maura and Frost looked fearfully into each other's eyes before he turned his monitor to face Jane. Korsak moved to look at the picture too. "Why do you have a picture of Dana on your screen? You can't run a search for every single person my brother talks to, Frost-" Jane began to complain but then stopped as she read the caption of the image.

'_Elanor Brown, 27, MISSING PERSON.' _

"Oh my god," Jane said and then she ran to press the lockdown button for the precinct.

* * *

Security cameras had been added all around the precinct after Maura had been taken, so it didn't take long for Frost to find a video of Frankie showing Elanor the parking garage. 'Dana' had pretended to faint and Frankie, polite as ever, had led her over to his car so that she could sit down. He'd gotten in the car too, presumably to comfort her and that's when Elanor tased him. Jane watched the video several times, and they'd put a BOLO out on her brother's car but there were no hits. They researched Elanor Brown and found that she had owned a flower shop before she'd gone missing. They learned that she'd failed out of medical school and that her maiden name was Steele.

"Looks like they were working together for quite a while… Dr. Steele was carved into Jane Doe's chest, remember?" Korsak spoke.

"Yeah, I thought it was just an anagram for the Dr. Leon Sternsdale reference…" Jane looked confusedly at the computer screen before she started pacing. "She started to work with Casey pretty quickly after she was abducted…"

"Do you think she was Casey's first victim?" Frost asked Jane as the Detective paced. "I mean, she _does _look pretty similar to Maura and the timeline matches…"

"But why would she help him?" Maura countered, "what kind of motive could she have for helping him?"

"I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the husband?" Frost suggested.

"Yeah, threaten the husband to control the wife… it works well…" Jane muttered. "Hoyt used that tactic all the time."

"But why is she _still_ behaving this way?" Maura asked. She knew first hand what it was like being exposed to Casey Jones's insanity and was having a hard time imagining ever wanting to help him.

"Could be lots of things, Maur, you know that," Jane spoke kindly and Maura sighed before she nodded.

"Stockholm syndrome… need for control… sense of power," Maura started to list and Frost felt a chill run down his spine.

"We need to find Frankie," Frost spoke and his phone rang. He picked it up quickly. "Frost here… what do you have..? Take a picture of it and send it to my cell…" He finished the phone call and looked at Jane.

"What, Frost?" Jane impatiently asked. Her brother's life was on the line.

"They guys we sent to her old flower shop found a note for you, they're sending it now…" Frost informed her, and they all huddled around his phone after it chimed to indicate the message had arrived.

_Jane, _

_I will release your brother on one condition.  
You must meet me at your old secret hideout and you must come alone. _

_If you bring anyone else, I'll know._

_Meet me there at the same time you used to frequent it or your brother will die.  
Only then will I ensure his safety; he isn't the Rizzoli I want to hurt but I will if you don't listen._

_Dr. Steele_

"Jane, where is she talking about?" Frost asked but Jane read the note again and didn't answer. "Jane?"

"You can't be thinking about going," Maura spoke firmly and Jane turned to look at her.

"Maur, she's got Frankie," Jane stated needlessly.

"Yes and she's just using him to get to you," Maura argued.

"So? She still has him!" Jane argued right back.

"That doesn't mean you suddenly start acting like a sister and stop being a great detective!" Maura shouted.

"We're here to help, Jane, we want him back too but we're not going to let you walk blindly into a trap on the off chance that Frankie will be there… at this point, we don't even know if he's… alive." Frost's voice cracked with the last word and Jane ran a hand through her hair.

"Well, I can't just stand around and do nothing!" Jane yelled and was going to continue but Frost's computer made a dinging sound and she waited for him to explain what it was.

"Frankie is on the move…" Frost said and then pointed to a little red dot that was moving through the streets of Boston, "or at least his phone is on the move…"

"Great, get units on it!" Jane shouted and Frost picked up his phone. They watched the little red dot on the screen move quickly in a straight line directly toward the Charles River.

* * *

Jane, Maura, Korsak, and Frost stood on the pier of the river as they waited for a crew to pull a vehicle out of the water. The crane slowly lifted Frankie's car out of the shore and Jane's entire body tensed as the crane moved the car back onto solid land.

"Please tell me he's not in there…" Jane spoke and Korsak cleared the emotion from his throat as he approached the vehicle.

"It's clear, Janie, nobody is in the car," he informed her.

"You think she wanted us to find this?" Frost asked as he reached into the car to try to find Frankie's phone.

"Nah, no way," Korsak responded, "nobody would have noticed a car driving itself into the river in this area… she just wanted to ditch it."

"They must be nearby, then," Frost spoke. "Hey Maura, are these the same zip ties we found on the husband?" Frost indicated toward the vehicle and the ME moved to verify.

"Yes, what do you think that indicates, Jane?" Maura asked and looked up to try to find the Detective. "Jane?"

Jane watched as her girlfriend, partner, and Seargent did an intake of the vehicle. She noted that the three of them were distracted and she noticed that the crew of crane operators were also focusing on the vehicle. She watched her closest friends try to piece together where the car had come from and her heart swelled and broke at the same time. She already knew where the car had come from… she looked down at her watch and realized she had less than an hour until the meetup time Elanor had requested. She glanced back to the people she loved most in the world and then dipped behind a cargo hold. The group of people she loved was incomplete without her little brother and Jane had always been the kind of sister to sacrifice for her family. With that, she turned and started running away from the river, up the street she'd driven down and toward her old Sunday school Church building. She heard Maura calling her name in the distance but she could not turn around.

Jane approached the Church greenhouse and walked quietly through the back door with her gun drawn. She noticed that the vegetables that used to be grown in it when she was a kid had been replaced with flowers. Orange lilies bloomed in the room along with purple petunias. A small bed of black roses was displayed proudly behind where her brother laid motionless on the ground.

"Frankie!" Jane breathed out and walked forward. She immediately felt cool metal press into the back of her neck and heard the familiar sound of a gun being cocked. "If you fucking laid a finger on my brother I will beat you into the ground so hard that you'll wish Casey would have killed you," Jane threatened menacingly and Elanor laughed.

"Too bad I'm the one with the advantage," Elanor chuckled out and pressed the barrel harder into Jane's scalp. "Drop your gun or he dies." Jane listened and gently leaned down to place her gun on the floor. "Good, now walk back out of here like everything is normal and go get in the driver's seat on the grey Nissan Micra parked outside. Try anything funny and Frankie dies." Jane followed the orders after a long, studious glance toward her brother. Once she verified that he was breathing, she slowly turned to take the car keys from Elanor and do as she'd been told.

* * *

"She can't have gone far, Maura," Korsak placed a hand on Maura's shoulder as she tried to stay calm.

"Barry, we have to figure out where the meetup was," Maura pleaded and Frost nodded before he pulled his phone out to read the note again.

"This isn't helpful, it just says 'secret hideout,'" he complained as he handed his phone to Maura so that she and Korsak could read the note too. "That could be anything!"

"Has to be from when they were kids, though, right?" Korsak suggested and the other two people looked at him in confusion. "Well, adults don't really have secret hideouts…"

"Oh, I thought it was just something siblings would understand," Maura mused out loud as she considered the note from a new perspective. "What has Frankie told you about their childhood?" She asked Frost who shrugged.

"The usual stuff I guess," he responded, "nuclear family, dinner every night, catholic school…" he listed all the generic knowledge he could remember.

"It's Sunday!" Maura shouted suddenly and the men looked at her expectantly. "They're Catholic! Obviously, the meetup is today, and soon if Jane left so suddenly, and she's complained to me multiple times about how she hated Sunday school."

"Yeah!" Frost agreed, "Frankie said that they used to climb out of the church window and hide in the greenhouse to avoid the nuns."

"What church did they go to?" Korsak asked and both Maura and Frost shrugged worriedly. "I'll call Angela…"

"She'll panic…" Maura murmured. Korsak nodded as he dialed.

"Hey, Angela, a couple of friends of mine asked me about Catholic schools in the area and I was wondering where Jane and her brothers went… St. Raphaels? Now do they provide Sunday School there too or was there a separate church for that..? Right on the river, no way…" He kept talking to her casually as Frost wrote down the names of the places Korsak was saying. The Sargent indicated that they should follow him to his car and he continued to discreetly get information out of the Rizzoli matriarch. "Listen, I have another call coming in, thanks for your help, Ang, it means a lot!" Korsak hung up. "There's a church right up the road from here where they used to go,"

"What are we waiting for?" Frost shouted as he slipped into the vehicle with his team. Korsak drove them quickly to the greenhouse. They noticed a car parked in the church parking lot but thought nothing of it… it was Sunday after all. Maura waited by the car as Korsak took the front entrance and Frost entered through the back. The sight of all the flowers made them sure they were in the right place.

"Frankie!" Frost shouted as he saw the younger man writhing slightly on the floor. "Frankie, where'd they go? Where's Jane?" Frankie groaned in response, "go get Maura, he's hurt," Frost shouted to Korsak, who turned to get Maura. By the time he walked back to the parking lot, Maura was nowhere to be seen and all Korsak noticed was the outline of a small gray car zooming away from him. It was too far to get a plate, but he did recognize the make and model.

* * *

As Maura waited outside, she noticed a small grey car parked beside the church. Her eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the driver and she walked over toward the vehicle. She could see Jane's lips moving but didn't notice anybody else in the vehicle. She approached slowly and the passenger side window rolled down to reveal Elanor hidden behind Jane's seat pointing a gun to Jane's head.

"Hello, Doctor Isles," Elanor grinned winningly. "Get in the car or I'll shoot."

"Don't get in the car, Maura!" Jane shouted and Elanor used the butt of the gun to hit her in the temple, causing a stream of blood to start flowing.

"Keep quiet, Jane," she threatened, "Maura here is going to get in the car and then you're going to drive exactly where I tell you to… unless one of you wants to watch the other bleed out," Elanor mused as she continued to hold her gun against Jane's head.

"Maura…" Jane whined as a tear rolled down her cheek. The ME could do nothing but follow orders. She couldn't let Jane die so she opened the passenger door and slid into the vehicle.

"Good choice," Elanor complimented, "now grab Jane's handcuffs and secure your wrists," she directed Maura who followed the order. Once Maura had the cuffs securely in place, Elanor reached over and tased her.

"Hey!" Jane yelled and went to reach for the ME.

"Hands on the wheel!" Elanor yelled. Jane hesitated but listened. "Now drive to your apartment," she ordered.

"My apartment?" Jane asked.

"Are you deaf or stupid? Yes, drive to your apartment… they won't think to look there and by the time they find you, it'll be too late," Elanor explained and Jane drove steadily through the streets of Boston toward her now almost empty place.

Once they had arrived at the building, Elanor eyed Maura nervously and she directed Jane to step out of the vehicle. She guided Jane up the stairs of the building and once they entered the apartment, Elanor used zip ties to secure Jane to the radiator in the living room. Jane sat with her hands tied behind her back and her assailant left her there with threats of harming Maura should she make any noise.

Elanor took the handcuff keys from Jane and moved back to the car to wait for the ME to wake up. Maura stirred in her seat and groaned at the soreness of her body. She felt like she was moving in slow motion and struggled to make her brain work as fast as it normally did. She looked over to Elanor who was sitting in the driver's seat and pointing a gun at her.

"Where's Jane?" Maura asked.

"Upstairs," Elanor explained and indicated to the apartment building. Maura's face scrunched up in confusion at the sight of Jane's old apartment building. She'd been helping Jane move everything over to her house and hadn't expected to return.

"What are we doing here?" Maura wondered out loud through the muddled fog of her mind.

"Stop asking stupid questions and do what I say," Elanor impatiently threatened. "Now get out and walk up to Jane's apartment like everything is fine." Maura lazily lifted herself forward in the seat and slumped against the dashboard as her head spun.

"I… don't think I can walk yet," Maura claimed as she discreetly reached into her purse for her phone.

"You're gonna have to if you don't want to get shot," Elanor threatened her to make sure the other blonde wasn't playing any tricks.

"I can't move my legs," Maura reiterated as she unlocked her phone with her fingerprint and clicked on her call log. She couldn't see the names from her view so she hoped that it would find someone who could help. She leaned back in her seat and looked to Elanor. "These may cause some suspicion," She indicated to the cuffs and Elanor held the key in the air in between them.

"Try anything funny and you'll never see Jane again," the other blonde threatened and Maura nodded her understanding.

* * *

Frost tended to Frankie while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

"You better find my sister," Frankie spoke to the pair of men.

"We will don't worry," Frost rubbed Frankie's hair as he attempted to soothe the younger man. Frankie was still dazed from being tased and Frost didn't know what else to do to make him feel better.

"Ma is gonna be so pissed," he drawled out.

"Frankie, do you know where Elanor was taking them?" Korsak interrupted.

"Nnnnnope," Frankie supplied, "she just asked me about church stuff… God, I'm so stupid. I thought it was Maura."

"Shh, hey, no you're not, you didn't know why she was asking," Frost defended Frankie against himself as the ambulance pulled into the lot.

"Still nothing with the BOLO," Korsak complained as he looked at his phone. "Wait… do you hear that?" He asked and Frost nodded. The sound of a phone was emanating from Jane's cruiser. Korsak ran to the car and flipped Jane's phone open. "Hello? Janie, are you there? Hello?" He spoke into the phone but got no response. "Frost, I need you to start a trace!" He ordered Frost who quickly ducked to kiss Frankie's cheek before he followed the command.

* * *

Maura finally entered Jane's apartment a few steps ahead of Elanor and she rushed to Jane's side.

"Are you okay?" They asked each other in unison. Elanor walked over and pushed Maura to the side so that the ME fell onto the ground from her crouching position in front of Jane.

"He abducted me because I look like you! I'm going to take Jane away from you just like you took him away from me! This is all your fault!" Elanor shouted and held the gun toward Maura so that the ME wouldn't move.

"Why did you help him?" Maura asked and Elanor looked at her in disgust.

"What else could I do?" She yelled, "he took away the only thing that ever mattered to me and I couldn't do _anything _to stop it! But this? This I can do!" Elanor kept her gun trained on Maura to keep the ME in place as she reached into her pocket to reveal a pocket knife. She moved toward Jane and held the knife to the brunette's throat.

"You don't have to do this," Jane spoke softly but Elanor just laughed.

"I _want _to!" She muttered. "He made me watch… at first, I didn't want to put Zach in that freezer but he made me. He wouldn't hurt me as long as I listened to him." Jane and Maura listened to Elanor speak in hopes of finding something to use against her. "Charles like to show me how to use knives, do you see?" Elanor asked and then lifted her sleeve to reveal dozens of scars on her arm.

"He can't hurt you anymore, Elanor," Maura tried to reason with the other blonde.

"He wasn't hurting me," Elanor scoffed, "he was teaching me. I love to learn. He loved me because I liked to learn… I'm a doctor, you know." Elanor explained.

"No, you failed out of medical school," Jane reminded Elanor and the woman's body tensed.

"Charles didn't care about that part… he loved me," she argued with Jane.

"No, he loved me… he used you because he couldn't get to Maura to hurt me," Jane retorted calmly.

"Shut up!" Elanor yelled.

"Why did he kidnap the other girl?" Jane questioned. "The other girl that looks like you, do you even know her name?"

"Shut up!" Elanor repeated. "He called her Maura… I don't know her real name. I hated her. She got all of his attention. I _hated _her."

"Is that why you killed her?" Maura asked.

"Yes," Elanor spit out, "I am _not _you! He wouldn't shut up about you. No matter how well I listened or what I did to help him, he would always go back and play with '_Maura.'"_

"Because he wanted you both to be me," Maura explained.

"I am not a second rate version of you!" Elanor shouted and the blade she was holding knicked Jane in the neck. She smiled down at the blood she'd drawn and moved to continue to press the blade deeper but froze at the sound of loud sirens. She moved to look out the window and saw several police cars pulling in front of the building. She cursed loudly and used the pocket knife to free Jane from the radiator and pulled the woman tightly in front of her to be used as a human shield.

"I am _not _dying today!" Elanor complained, "you lead the way downstairs or I will blow her brains out," she threatened Maura and the ME nodded, glad that her phone call had done the trick. She led the way to the front door of the lobby, people in the hallways closed their door to the sight of the three women. As soon as they were on the main floor of the building Elanor directed Maura to go outside and tell the crowd the plan.

"She's got Jane," Maura spoke loudly to both Frost and Korsak as she exited the building with her hands up. A barrage of police cars was lined up around the building and they all had their guns at the ready. She walked with her hands up toward the safety of the barricade and Korsak looked her over quickly to make sure she was alright. "Forget about me, she's using Jane as a shield so she can get away, we need to stop them!" Maura panicked and the front doors of the building opened once more. Sure enough, Elanor had Jane pinned closely to her body and nobody could get a clear shot.

"Nobody move!" Elanor threatened from behind Jane. Frost decided to try to ease his way behind the cars toward the side of the barricade to see if he could get a better shot. While Elanor was distractedly talking to Korsak he moved out from behind the last car so that he could take aim. The woman noticed him and quickly shot directly into his chest. He collapsed to the ground and his gun scattered across the pavement. Maura moved behind the cars after Frost. She passed his gun and moved out from behind the barricade to triage him. He had a punctured lung for sure. Maura knew that Elanor wouldn't shoot at her; the other blonde wanted Maura to suffer alive and alone in the world. "I _said _nobody moves!"

"Shoot her!" Jane pleaded to her friends. Maura looked on in horror as Frost's skin paled and his breathing because short and erratic. "Maura, he'll die! Somebody shoot her!" Jane begged. Maura knew that the words were the truth. She knew that if someone didn't get to Frost fast that he would die. She triaged him as best she could and moved back behind the car. Elanor started to drag Jane further up the street and the brunette struggled all the while, begging for anybody to aim at the crazy woman who held her. Maura found Frost's gun again and snuck back out behind the car near where Barry lay on the pavement. She took a few steps further and had a clear shot of Elanor. Maura hoped that either Elanor would turn her body and expose herself to the policeman's guns or that Elanor would shoot Maura instead, giving Jane a chance to grab the gun and save herself. Maura Maura took a deep breath and prepared herself to die so that Jane and Barry could live. Jane noticed Maura out of the corner of her eye at the same time Elanor did. Elanor kept her grip tight on Jane as she tried to aim the ME. Jane's eyebrows drew together as she watched Elanor's gun lift toward the woman she loved and she reached out to grab the weapon. Jane quickly drew the gun toward her own abdomen and pulled the trigger, knowing that the bullet would fly through her and into the woman who held her captive. Maura looked on in shock as Jane shot herself to protect everyone else and she rushed over to the brunette as she fell to the ground. Maura scraped her knees on the pavement as she kneeled beside the woman she loved. Jane was still awake, which was a good sign. Maura tried to feel confident in Jane's odds as she was carried into the back of an ambulance. Maura saw a small box fall out of Jane's blazer and she bent to pick it up. It was a ring box. She put it quickly into her pocket and stepped into the ambulance after Jane, hoping beyond hope that the Detective would live.

* * *

**Nothing like near-death experiences to bring people closer together, right?  
The next chapter will be extra long and fluffy, I promise!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Okay, people, it was pointed out to me that the last chapter was pretty episode-ey, so this is _mostly_ from my brain to make up for that, lmao. I did include some cute stuff from s02e01 that I like, but other than that, it's all me. I appreciate the constructive criticism! Forewarning that this is likely the last chapter so I tied off pretty much every loose end I could think of. **

* * *

Maura sat directly outside of Jane and Frost's room in the ICU. Due to Maura's triage at the scene, both Jane and Frost would make it, but they each had a long road of recovery ahead of them. Korsak had been selected to keep an eye on Maura. Since she'd technically stolen a firearm from a law enforcement officer and intended to shoot a person, she was to remain under close supervision until Frost woke up; she had to wait to see if he wanted to press charges. It was a rare and complicated situation.

"They're going to be okay, Maura," Korsak spoke kindly to the ME. He was still shocked to have seen the docile blonde intend to fire a weapon, and toward the woman she loved, no less.

"Yes, they'll be fine," Maura reiterated monotonously.

"Were you really going to let Elanor shoot you?" Korsak asked the ME and Maura closed her eyes to think about her answer.

"Yes," Maura opened her eyes and looked at Korsak.

"You were going to do _what?_" Angela Rizzoli yelled as she and Frankie stepped off of the elevator. Korsak stood and held his hands up in surrender toward the Rizzoli Matriarch.

"Maura, you're the smartest person I know, why the hell would you let somebody shoot you?" Frankie asked but Maura just quieted and looked toward the ground.

"She was trying to save Jane's life," Korsak spoke quietly to the family and Angela began to cry.

"Oh, how is she? Is she awake yet?" Angela spoke to Korsak as Frankie moved to sit beside Maura. Korsak quietly filled Angela in on Jane's status and let Maura and Frankie talk in peace.

"You were going to let that crazy woman shoot you so Jane would be safe?" Frankie asked and Maura nodded to him.

"It was all I could do," Maura choked out and Frankie hugged her tightly. Maura reached into her pocket to give the ring box to Frankie and his eyes widened.

"Where did you get this?" He asked in confusion.

"It fell out of Jane's blazer after she… after she shot herself…" Maura choked on the words.

"Did you look at it?" The younger Rizzoli questioned.

"Of course not," Maura scoffed.

"Why not?" Frankie asked.

"If it is what I think it is… what I hope it is, then I don't want to see it like this," Maura whispered. She couldn't talk normally due to the emotion that seemed to tighten her chest. Frankie smiled at her and draped an arm around her shoulders.

"How are you feeling?" He asked caringly.

"Likely the same as you… we both got tased," Maura said and Frankie laughed, though Maura hadn't meant it as a joke.

"Somebody better explain what the _hell _is going on here!" Angela spoke loudly to the group and Frankie gasped.

"Ma, you swore!" He stated in surprise.

"Yeah, well my baby girl almost died _again _and nobody even told me she had a case!" Angela said accusingly and Korsak took her by the shoulders to seat her in a chair. He began to explain everything. He told her about the crime scene, how it was likely connected to Casey Jones. Frankie explained how he had been kidnapped by Dana, who wasn't really Dana, and that she tased him into a state of confusion and asked him about places only he and Jane would know about. He explained how he thought it was Maura asking him in his confusion so he had told Elanor about the greenhouse.

"Don't feel bad, Frankie, it could have happened to any of us," Korsak spoke to make him feel better. Korsak continued to tell Angela what had happened that day and Angela's eyes widened several times at the details.

"I can't believe you were going to let that crazy woman shoot you to keep Janie safe," Angela put a hand over her heart and began to cry. Korsak handed her a handkerchief and she dabbed at her eyes. "All my babies got kidnapped today and I didn't know a thing!"

"Tommy didn't get kidnapped," Frankie deadpanned and Angela laughed through her tears.

"I've never been so happy about him being in prison!" She added and Frankie chuckled.

"We're all gonna be fine, Ma, "Frankie smiled at his mother and Angela nodded as she continued to dab at her eyes.

"Where are the families of Barold Frost and Jane Rizzoli?" A doctor stepped into the hallway and read off of a clipboard. The group stood in unison.

"Here, we're right here," Angela spoke.

"My name is Doctor Sluckey… You're both of their families?" The doctor asked.

"Yes," Frankie said and the doctor nodded before he led the group into the room. Jane and Barry each lay in a separate bed about ten feet apart from each other. Maura teared up at the sight of Jane's breathing tube. She knew that meant that the brunette was in an induced coma so that her body could heal.

"Oh," Angela muttered and she stepped toward Jane. She leaned down to kiss her daughter's hair and then looked toward Frost, worry etched onto her features.

"Barry Frost suffered a punctured lung due to a GSW to the chest. Surgery was successful and we're hopeful that we'll be able to remove the tube in his chest later on tonight." Doctor Sluckey informed and Frankie swallowed thickly as he moved to the foot of Barry's bed. He cleared his throat as he looked down at Frost's ribs and saw a clear tube sticking out.

"What does the tube do?" Frankie asked Maura.

"A chest tube is placed through the ribs into the area surrounding the lungs to help drain air and also to help inflate the lung," Maura spoke and Doctor Sluckey nodded. "He'll be fine, Frankie, recovery time for pneumothorax is six to eight weeks." Frankie let out a breath and sat in the chair next to Barry's bed. He tentatively reached up to hold the man's hand.

"What about Janie," Angela asked Doctor Sluckey.

"She was lucky to have been so close to an ambulance," the Doctor began, "she suffered a laceration to the peritoneal small bowel. Had she not been transported to the hospital so quickly she likely would have suffered from sepsis. We've induced a coma to ensure that her body is focused solely on healing. We've got her hooked up to this machine that will breathe for her until I believe her wound has healed enough."

"Did you elect to close the wounds with stitches or staples?" Maura asked the other doctor.

"Stitches seemed to be the best option... Are you a doctor?" He asked Maura.

"I am the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Are you worried about any particular complications occurring?" Maura continued to question him.

"I know you're worried about your friend, but you're merely a pathologist and she was operated on by a renowned surgeon. She'll heal perfectly." Doctor Sluckey spoke condescendingly and Maura had half a mind to slap him.

"No offense doc, but you could probably learn a thing or two from her," Frost coughed and choked out the jibe at the surgeon. Frankie smiled and leaned forward, Frost looked over and the younger Rizzoli and then glanced down at their linked hands. "If you wanted to hold my hand this whole time you could've just asked, Frankie," Barry joked and Frankie chuckled as a tear fell out of the corner of his eye.

"I'd punch you if you weren't already such a mess," Frankie sassed back and Frost squeezed his hand.

"I reckon I could still kick your ass," Barry teased and then he moved his head around the room. He smiled in confusion at everyone before his eyes fell on Jane's unconscious body. "Is she-"

"She's fine, Barry," Frankie spoke.

"As I was saying," Doctor Sluckey continued, "the gunshot was a through and through and she should be perfectly healed in twelve to fourteen weeks. I'll leave you to it, let me know if you have any further questions." The surgeon walked swiftly out of the room, hoping not to incur any more insults.

"Good to see you awake, buddy," Korsak moved to speak to Frost and the younger Detective smiled at him.

"Wish I could say the same," Frost poked fun at the older man and Frankie chuckled. "What happened?"

"You got a punctured lung through your kevlar vest and Maura had to triage you at the scene," Korsak explained.

"Did Elanor shoot Jane?" Frost looked over to his partner in confusion.

"No," Maura muttered as she looked at Jane's face. "She shot herself to save us both."

"Typical," Frost groaned.

"You're leaving out a pretty important detail there, Doc," Korsak looked at the blonde and she just shrugged. Frost looked curiously at the ME and then to Korsak who once again explained what had happened in front of Jane's old apartment.

"You're both nuts," Frost said to Maura and the ME choked out an emotional laugh. Angela walked over to Frost and leaned down to kiss him on the forehead.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Barry," she spoke tenderly to the man and her eyes locked in on his hand which was still entwined with Frankie's. "I don't know what's going on here but I have to say that I approve," she gestured to their hands and Frankie blushed and grinned. Frost chuckled.

"Me too, Angela," Frost said before he yawned. "Glad Jane's okay," he said before he fell back into a deep sleep. Doctor Sluckey re-entered the room sometime later and checked on Frost and Jane.

"Okay folks, visiting hours are almost over, I have to insist that you come back tomorrow after eight in the morning," he said as he read from his chart.

"I'm not going anywhere," Angela immediately refused.

"We can't have civilians in the ICU overnight, it's a safety precaution, I must insist you leave," he reiterated and Angela opened her mouth to argue before Maura placed a delicate hand on her wrist.

"I am a doctor and I have the right to be in this hospital _and _in this room under the law of-"

"Okay, fine, _you _can stay, but I have to insist that the rest of you leave," Doctor Sluckey looked pointedly to the rest of the group and Angela glared at him.

"Don't worry, Angela," Maura spoke softly, "I'll make sure she's safe." Angela's eyes softened at the small blonde woman and her heart grew. Who knew that within such a small, docile woman lay the kindest, most caring soul she'd ever met. Angela stepped forward and hugged the ME tightly, thinking about how Maura had been willing to sacrifice herself for Jane.

"I know you will," Angela whispered before she let go. Frankie kissed Barry's hand and then stood to wipe the tear off of his mother's cheek before he moved to hug Maura too.

"Love you," he said before he kissed Maura's cheek.

"And you, Sir?" The surgeon looked pointedly at Korsak.

"I'm her bodyguard and I legally need to stay with her until Barry gains permanent consciousness," Korsak explained and he could see Sluckey struggle to control his eye roll.

"Fine," he said and then he exited the room.

"I do not like that man," Angela complained.

"Me either," Korsak agreed. "We'll call you with any updates, go home and get some rest, huh?" He suggested to the Rizzoli's and they left the room. "How are you feeling?" Korsak turned to ask Maura.

"Not great. I'm worried, though I know it's irrational. I don't want to go home…" Maura gazed at Jane and her eyebrows creased in worry.

"We'll stay here tonight, then," Korsak decided and Maura looked at him in surprise. "What? You think this is the first time I've had to sleep in an uncomfortable chair while Jane slept in a hospital bed?"

"I had assumed it was," Maura admitted. Korsak shook his head.

"After Hoyt got her I stayed in the hospital with her for a while. Eventually, they just brought a cot to the room for me," he chuckled before he sobered again, "listen, she's going to be fine, Doc, give it a week or so and she'll be home. Three months goes by fast, you'll be back to normal before you know it."

"I hope so," Maura responded. Her and Korsak sat in the visitor's chairs talking quietly with each other deep into the night. Korsak spoke of how he and Jane first met when she was just eighteen and doing an internship at the station. He spoke about how he helped her study for the Detective's exam and how happy she was when she showed him her perfect score. He told Maura about all of his favorite moments with Jane and the ME felt a new respect for the man begin to grow. He'd been there for Jane for a good portion of her life and he was still adamant in his commitment to the brunette. Eventually, Maura's eyes drifted shut and she stopped responding to him with questions about his stories. He grinned at her and took off his coat, draping it over her like a blanket.

* * *

"Press charges?" Barry Frost yelled out in surprise, "are you insane? I'm not going to press charges! She saved my life! She saved Jane's life! What the hell were they thinking?" He shouted as best he could with the pain in his chest.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger," Korsak raised his hands in surrender and Frost scoffed.

"Shoot the messenger, really?" He teased the older man.

"Bad choice of words?" Korsak asked, amused at the slip.

"Maybe just a tad," Frost laughed. "I'm not going to press charges, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard."

"That's good to hear," Maura grumbled and stretched in her uncomfortable chair. She looked down at herself and seemed to be momentarily confused by Korsak's jacket. "Thank you, Vince."

"Don't mention it," he responded before he reached to take the jacket back. "Well, I'll go tell the captain that Maura doesn't need to go to jail."

"I was at risk of being imprisoned?" Maura asked in shock.

"Well, kind of, you do work with the police so we probably could have just given you community service…" Korsak mused out loud, "oh well, all's well that ends well, right?" He nodded at Frost and hugged Maura before he left. "You take good care of that girl."

"Always," Maura nodded and stood to walk over to check on Jane. All of her stats were good and Maura read the chart attached to the bed at Jane's feet. "Perfect patient," Maura commented.

"Yeah, because she's unconscious," Barry joked and Maura smirked at him.

"I need her to wake up… I can't believe she's okay until I can actually talk to her," Maura commented and Frost chuckled.

"She said that exact same thing, word for word when you were unconscious in the hospital last year. Man, you guys are like the same person," he grinned at Maura and then looked toward Jane. "She's the toughest person I've ever met. Remember that time she had a dislocated shoulder and still tackled that two hundred pound wrestler to the ground? This is nothing for her." Maura smiled at the memory. Jane shocked Maura every day with how strong she could be and by how determined she was in everything she did.

"She shot herself to save us," Maura looked at Frost and he nodded.

"You were going to let Elanor shoot you to save us," he responded, "like the same person," he muttered again.

"You risked your life to save her too, Barry… I don't want to say that I can't live without her, because physically I can, but I certainly don't want to," Maura said as she went to sit in the chair next to Frost's bed.

"Yeah, I'd do just about anything for her, she's my best friend," he agreed, "I can't imagine working at the BPD without Jane…"

"Me either," Maura agreed and they both thought back to their first four months at the precinct when Jane had been on medical leave. It simply was not the same without the cranky Detective stomping around and daring the world to test her. "Hey, didn't you say it takes three days to get over caffeine addiction?" Frost asked Maura and the ME grinned.

"I don't believe there's anything on this Earth that could keep Jane away from caffeine," Maura joked and Frost laughed.

"Ugh, ouch. When are they going to take this thing out of me?" He asked and gestured to the tube poking out of his ribs. Maura leaned in to assess it more closely.

"They were going to remove it yesterday but were concerned because you seemed so tired. I assume they're going to remove it as soon as they see you're awake again," Maura spoke as she eyed the wound.

"You assume correctly," Doctor Sluckey walked into the room and smiled widely at them both. "Hello, I'm Doctor Sluckey, it's nice to officially meet you," he politely spoke to Frost. "We're going to take you back into the ER to remove it in a couple of minutes, I'm just waiting on my interns to prep the room."

"I'll be okay?" Frost turned to ask Maura and she smiled at him encouragingly.

"You'll be great, Barry," she reached out to squeezed his hand as a couple of nurses walked in to take him away.

"I'm always great," Barry grinned at Maura and she chuckled as she nodded in agreement. Maura sighed as everyone exited the room. She moved back to sit in the chair next to Jane's bed and she uselessly tried to fix Jane's errant curls. They released Frost the next day and Maura stayed at the hospital, waiting for Jane to wake up and informing all of the Detective's other visitors that there were no changes in her status. Doctor Sluckey stopped giving Jane the drugs required to induce a coma and for three days after, Jane continued to sleep. For three days Maura stayed in the hospital and sat next to her favorite person in the world. Maura showered in the hospital and ate in the cafeteria, listening constantly for an emergency page to Jane's room. She tried to go home to get a fresh pair of clothes but the thought of Jane waking up without her made her feel nauseous so she asked Angela to bring some instead. It took three days for Jane to choke on the tube in her throat as she fought to breathe on her own. Maura had pressed the button to call a doctor to remove it but the intern that showed up fainted. She turned away from him and grabbed gloves from the supply station and then turned to remove the tube herself.

"Sorry, love," she spoke to Jane as she removed it. Jane choked slightly at the sensation and coughed a couple of times. She swallowed thickly and Maura moved to fill up a paper cup of water for the brunette. "Drink this slowly," Maura ordered and Jane nodded. Jane followed the orders. She knew Maura would do what was best.

"Someone want to tell me what's going on in here?" Doctor Sluckey walked into the room and stared down at his unconscious intern.

"Jane started to fight her ET tube and I pressed the call button but this young man fainted when he arrived, so I removed it," Maura explained and the surgeon puffed out his chest.

"And what if you had accidentally injured Detective Rizzoli in your rush to remove the tube?" He challenged the blonde and Jane glared at him before she spoke.

"She's probably more qualified than you," Jane growled out. Her voice was deep and raspy from disuse and she reminded Maura more than ever of a wolf cornering her prey, which was impressive considering that she was immobile.

"Well it's nice to see that your vocal cords weren't damaged," Doctor Sluckey spoke. He did a quick checkup on Jane where she answered his questions monosyllabically and impatiently.

"So much for the perfect patient," Maura mused after the surgeon left.

"What?" Jane asked for clarification.

"When Barry was here I said they you were the perfect patient and he said that-"

"That I was only the perfect patient because I was unconscious?" Jane guessed and Maura grinned as she nodded. A crease or worry overtook the happiness on Maura's face and tears began to spill out of her eyes. Jane opened her arms to indicate that Maura should lay with her.

"Your wound, Jane, I don't want to hurt you," Maura whispered out.

"Then I'll tell you if you're hurting me," Jane whispered back and Maura moved forward to carefully fold herself into the bed on Jane's good side. "Why are you crying?"

"You almost died, Jane," Maura choked out as Jane reached up to play with her hair. "I could have lost you. You shot yourself." Maura explained as tears dripped off of her nose and into the shoulder of Jane's gown.

"I couldn't let her shoot you, Maura." Jane choked up too and fought to keep the emotion out of her voice, failing entirely. "I heard what you said to Frost earlier… about not wanting to live without me… I didn't want to live without you either Maura. You didn't deserve to go out like that."

"Neither do you, Jane," Maura cried and Jane squeezed her slightly with her arms.

"It's a part of my job, Maura. I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Jane spoke out her truth and Maura continued to cry on the brunette's chest. "I looked at you and I looked at Frost and I knew what had to be done."

"What about _you_, Jane, did you think about yourself?" Maura asked.

"No," Jane said after she thought it over. "I just thought about how I could save you both."

"Me too," Maura admitted and Jane kissed the side of her head. They cried together until they both fell asleep.

* * *

Maura walked into her front door and rolled her eyes at the sight of new boxes from the shopping channel sitting next to the hall closet. She walked into her living room and stood in front of the television in order to get Jane's attention. Jane grumbled her complaint as best she could; she had a mouthful of cereal.

"You look terrible," Maura deadpanned and Jane nodded before she swallowed.

"Thank you," she said sarcastically. "_You _might even look bad if a bullet had gone through you… but I doubt it," the Detective remarked and then winked at the blonde. Maura ignored the compliment.

"Did you have a bowel movement today?" Maura asked and Jane groaned.

"You may not casually discuss my privates," the brunette sassed before she took another bite of cereal.

"It's been weeks, Jane," Maura said, "You could be reading all of Shakespeare… learning Finnish? Instead, you've become a platinum member of the shopping channel…" Maura glanced pointedly to the boxes by the door.

"Why would I ever need to know Finnish?" Jane sassed and tried to distract the ME. It didn't work.

"You know the stress hormone, cortisol, suppresses your immune cell's ability to activate telomerase," Maura explained to Jane and the Detective nodded even though she had no idea what point Maura was making. "Quite simply, keeping your brain busy aids recovery. Mind-body." Maura linked the two together.

"Mind business," Jane sassed back.

"You _are _my business," Maura retaliated before she sat on the sofa next to Jane. She leaned in to kiss the brunette lovingly. Jane eagerly reciprocated the affection. She leaned into the blonde and happily kissed the ME back until she felt Maura's hand sneaking up her shirt to prod around her bullet wound scar tissue.

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" Jane snarked.

"I just want to make sure you're healing properly!" Maura defended. Jane rolled her eyes and lifted her shirt for the ME. "Thank you." Maura gently pushed Jane back against the cushions of the couch and leaned in to inspect the harsh pink scar on Jane's abdomen. Maura's hand rubbed small circles into Jane's skin and she looked for any indications of irregularities. Jane reached up to cover Maura's hand with her own and she smiled sweetly at the ME.

"I'm fine, Maur," Jane whispered as Maura continued to stare at the bullet wound. "I'm fine."

"You could have died, Jane," Maura whispered.

"_You_ could have died, Maura," Jane whispered back and they gazed into each other's eyes.

"How bad is the pain today on a scale of one to ten?" Maura asked and Jane squinted her eyes as she decided on a number.

"Two," She finally answered.

"So a _normal _person's six," Maura decided and she moved to stand up to get Jane more pain killers.

"A _normal _person? That is _so _rude! No, no really, Maur," Jane argued and held Maura to the couch. "I'm a real two! Stay with me, please?"

"Okay, if you promise you're a real two," Maura agreed and Jane grinned. The Detective eased herself closer to Maura's side and the ME lifted one of her arms so that Jane could use her as a pillow. As they watched the television together, Maura noticed Jane occasionally start twisting her brown curls around her fingers.

"That's a sign of sexual frustration," Maura pointed out and Jane blushed before she looked at the ME.

"Or tangled hair," she sassed.

"I don't believe you've ever worried about that before," Maura smirked and Jane scowled at her.

"You _really _need to work on your compliments," Jane snarked out and Maura laughed. The blonde leaned to kiss Jane and the Detective used her hands to guide Maura into a straddling position across her lap.

"I don't want to hurt you, Jane," Maura warned and Jane pouted.

"But it would be _so _worth it," the Detective complained and then used her hands to pull Maura's face down into another heated kiss. The back door opened loudly and Angela scoffed at the sight on the couch.

"C'mon Ma, just for once in my life could you please _knock!?"_ Jane complained loudly from the couch as Angela gaped at the pair of women.

"Oh, you're too sick to wash the dishes but not too sick to have intercourse?" Angela accused and then rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen. Maura removed herself from Jane's lap with an unashamed smirk on her lips.

"Intercourse, Ma? Really? Come on. What are you doing here?" Jane stood slowly and grabbed the cane she temporarily had to use to help her walk. She meandered slowly over to the kitchen to join her mother.

"I came to make you dinner," Angela spoke to her shortly.

"I'm _fine, _Ma," Jane complained. "The bullet couldn't have gone three inches to the left?" Jane muttered and Maura pinched her. "Ow!"

"I will poke you in your scar tissue if you even joke about that," Maura threatened and Jane had the decency to look guilty.

"Sorry, Maura," Jane whispered.

"Sorry it right," Angela chided. "You're lucky enough to find a woman who'd willingly lay down her own life to keep you safe and you go and say a thing like that? I raised you better than that, Jane Rizzoli!"

"I know, Ma, I'm sorry!" Jane claimed and then huffed. "Maura thinks I should learn Finnish," Jane said to change the topic of conversation.

"Finnish? As in Finland Finnish? Why would you ever need to know that?" Angela asked as she moved around Maura's kitchen. Jane smirked at the ME and the blonde rolled her eyes.

"I was trying to explain that it will help Jane to heal faster if she keeps her mind active," Maura explained to Angela.

"Oh… in that case you should learn Italian," Angela suggested and Jane rolled her eyes.

"I _know _Italian, Ma," the Detective argued and her mother scoffed.

"You know the bad words, but that's it," Angela sassed and Jane looked offended.

"That's absolutely not true!" Jane shouted. "I learned how to say turtle!"

"Tartaruga," Maura said and Jane chuckled, "it's the same as tortoise."

"At least one of kids knows Italian," Angela mused and Maura stuck her tongue out at Jane who scowled before the ME moved to help Angela cook.

* * *

"I don't want to go, Maura, everyone is going to stare at me and I have to use this cane and it makes me look stupid," Jane complained as Maura walked out of the closet looking absolutely stunning in nothing but her undergarments.

"Jane, you can't miss the BPD's Christmas party," Maura scoffed and Jane groaned.

"Well I seem to remember missing it every other year it happened, so I think I feel fine about sitting this one out, too," Jane retorted and Maura looked pointedly at her.

"Well _I'll _be going and Frost and Frankie are going together, and Susie's been dying to see you-"

"Do you wanna get hives?" Jane interjected but Maura continued.

"-and I told Vince you were going. Everyone is so excited to see you!" Maura finished with a smile and Jane slumped back onto the bed from her sitting position.

"I'd rather eat kale," Jane scowled at the ceiling.

"Well you'll have to eat Kale if you stay home," Maura said and Jane lifted her head to eye the ME in suspicion. "I told your mother about the Christmas party and she made sure that there was only healthy food in the house."

"Maura!" Jane groaned out her complaint and dropped her head back onto the bed.

"_But _if you come to the Christmas party, you can eat anything you like," Maura enticed Jane with what she knew would work. "I heard the caterers were serving wings and fries along with the actual meal... and there will be beer."

"Beer?" Jane looked up again. She hadn't had a beer since she'd been out of the hospital.

"Yes, and I'll even let you have one," Maura quirked an eyebrow and Jane scowled at her. The Detective lifted one of her hands up so that Maura could help her stand.

"What am I going to wear?" Jane whined and Maura smiled widely. "You _do _know I can't wear heels, right?"

"Yes, I know that. Doctor Sluckey was very clear," Maura shook her head at the Detective and then walked back into her large closet. Jane grabbed her cane and followed the smaller woman. "I figured you could tuck this into those nice black Saint Laurent trousers I got you."

"The ones with the belt that comes with them?" Jane asked and Maura suppressed a sigh.

"Yes, those,' Maura smiled and Jane noticed that the shirt Maura had picked out for her matched the dress that was hanging next to it perfectly.

"You love me," Jane said teasingly and Maura smiled up at her.

"Yes I do, very much!" Maura agreed.

"Do you love me enough to be late?" Jane asked innocently.

"Why would we be late?" Maura looked at Jane in confusion but the sudden and heated kiss that Jane used instead of an actual response answered every question Maura had.

"Didn't you once say that sex helps to boost the immune system?" Jane asked and then she wiggled her eyebrows at the blonde.

"I did," Maura confirmed and Jane grinned mischievously as she backed carefully out of the closet and onto the bed.

"I've never needed my immune system boosted so badly," Jane joked and Maura laughed.

"I can help with that," Maura said as she followed the Detective.

"Yeah?" Jane grinned, "gonna make my brain release some oxytocin?" Jane asked and Maura chuckled.

"I love it when you talk dirty to me," the blonde joked and Jane laughed.

"Come here," Jane requested and Maura acquiesced to the request. With Jane's wounds and with Angela constantly coming and going through Maura's back door, they hadn't had the opportunity to spend much time together alone. Barring showers and wound dressing changes, they'd scarcely even seen each other naked in weeks. As they fell onto the bed together it didn't take long for either of them to start breathing heavily into their kisses. Jane rolled onto her back and pulled the blonde on top of her. Maura ground her hips down into Jane instinctually and the brunette pulled out of the kiss to move Maura's hair out of the way and start kissing the ME's neck. Maura shifted on Jane to try to get a better vantage point to start teasing the Detective's breasts but the brunette gasped in pain.

"Sorry!" Maura exclaimed and then she rolled off of the Detective completely.

"Ugh," Jane groaned out and huffed in frustration. "Why am I still in so much pain?"

"I could be psychosomatic…" Maura suggested and then she lifted her head to look around the room. Her eyes settled on the chair in the corner of the room. "We could try something new if you like?"

"Uh, okay…" Jane said and Maura stood from the bed to go sit on the chair. The blond nodded to indicate that Jane should follow her. Jane crawled off of the bed after the blonde and hobbled over to the chair.

"Take this off," Maura requested as she tugged on the hem of Jane's tank top. Jane followed the suggestion and Maura traced her fingers slowly along Jane's ribs, down and around the pink scar of her entry wound and finally to the waistband of Jane's sweatpants. Maura looked up to make sure Jane was okay and the brunette nodded her approval. Maura pulled the pants down and around Jane's ankles and the Detective steadied herself using Maura's shoulders as she stepped out of the pants. "Turn around," Maura said. Jane looked confused for a moment before she agreed to the request. Once the brunette was turned around Maura grabbed her hips and pulled Jane into a sitting position on her lap. "There, now I can't compress your wound."

Jane opened her mouth to sass the ME but the feeling of Maura's hands slowly massaging her back silenced her. Jane felt her body begin to relax as Maura kneaded her tense muscles. Maura worked her way up to Jane's shoulders and then moved her hands to Jane's breasts to begin to trace gentle paths around the Detective's erect nipples. Jane leaned back against the ME and leaned her head on Maura's shoulder while the blonde kneaded her breasts. Maura kissed Jane's neck and shoulder as she caressed Jane's breasts and tweaked the Detective's nipples. She felt Jane's hips push back into her body and she bit the brunette's earlobe before she moved one of her hands to begin to tease Jane's sensitive clit.

Maura slowly but steadily picked up the pace of her fingers as they expertly rubbed Jane's clit. The feeling of Maura's hot breath on Jane's neck and the blonde's fingers rubbing pleasure into Jane's core cause Jane's body to twitch and tremble. With each of Jane's pants of ecstasy, Maura increased either pressure or speed until Jane's abs and legs burned with overuse.

"Maura," Jane indicated her desire for more and the ME did not make her wait. Maura reached down with her free hand and, after ensuring Jane was wet enough, thrust two fingers into the brunette as deep as she could. Jane moaned out in bliss as Maura began to push her fingers in and out of her core. Jane felt her legs spread on instinct and her feet dangled in the air as her legs began to tremble under Maura's efforts. Maura felt Jane's core being to throb around her fingers and she worked harder to rub her fingers into the areas where she knew Jane liked them the most. Jane's orgasm overcame her senses and she groaned out her pleasure as Maura's hands worked their magic. Maura didn't cease her actions until Jane's body writhed on top of her and she felt Jane's body begin to ease itself down from its high. Jane leaned heavily back into Maura and the ME pulled her hands free of Jane's center as the Detective caught her breath.

"Worth being let over?" Maura asked as she wrapped her arms lovingly around Jane's body.

"Definitely," Jane responded, "even if I _did _want to go to the party," the brunette joked and Maura pinched her. "Hey! Scar tissue!"

"The endorphins that your brain just released are a natural pain-killer, you'll be fine," Maura teased back. Jane shivered slightly and Maura was about to suggest that they get up when Jane's phone rang. The Detective carefully stood and grabbed her phone from the end table.

"Hello..? Uh yeah… I dunno, about a half-hour? Yes… Okay, bye," Jane spoke into the phone and then glanced at Maura.

"If I were a betting woman I would assume that was Frost calling to ask when we would be arriving?" The blonde asked as she stood from the chair.

"If you were a betting woman you would have just made some money," Jane joked and Maura grinned before she walked into the washroom to wash her hands and redo her hair. Maura got ready in record time and helped to tuck Jane's shirt into her pants.

"You know, I think the cane might add to the overall aesthetic of this outfit," Maura assessed as she stepped back to look Jane over from head to toe. Jane rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Okay, Miranda Priestly," Jane said and Maura frowned slightly as the reference went right over her head. "The Devil Wears Prada? I can't believe you haven't seen that movie! You'd love it! _I _love it! We're watching it!" Jane demanded and Maura laughed.

"Whatever you say, darling," Maura lovingly spoke and then kissed Jane.

* * *

Maura stepped out of the driver's seat of her car and moved around to the passenger side of the vehicle to help Jane.

"I feel useless," Jane complained as Maura helped her stand.

"But you aren't," Maura spoke resolutely, "you make every one of my days better just by being here. So what if you need a little bit of extra help for a few weeks? All that I care about is that you're still here," Maura smiled at the adoring look that overcame Jane's features.

"All this time and you still find ways to make me feel in awe of you," Jane murmured and Maura's face brightened at the fact that Jane still remembered her use of the word from over a year ago.

"And you still make me feel more cherished than I ever thought possible," Maura responded just as lovingly and Jane blushed. "Come on, Detective, they're waiting for us," Maura gestured through one of the windows of the Dirty Robber and Jane looked up to see her friends sitting in a booth inside. She took a moment to simply stand under the light of a street post in the evening air and appreciate that she had all of these people in her life. Maura looked at Jane's face and she saw the admiration that Jane was feeling for the group of people seen through the window. The ME stuck out her arm and Jane looked down at it and smiled to the smaller woman before Maura guided Jane across the street.

Maura held the door open for Jane and the Detective limped her way into the bar. It had been festively decorated with dozens of strings of fairy lights across the old wooden beams of the ceiling rafters. The lights brought out the color of Jane's royal blue shirt and Maura's dress spectacularly. Tables had been removed from the room to make way for a makeshift dance floor and there was a table full of gifts wrapped in the far corner of the room. The bar was filled with people from the precinct who all nodded respectfully toward Jane. Frost stood from the booth and smiled as the pair of women hung their coats at the door. He walked over and hugged Jane.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you," Frost said exasperatedly, "Korsak's on one of his new special diets and you wouldn't _believe _how bad it is to share a car with him." Jane laughed at the information.

"Oh, I remember it very clearly, he used to be my partner too, remember?" Jane responded and they shared a knowing laugh. Before Jane had a chance to sit down, Frankie stood from his spot and hugged her.

"Hey, sis, can I talk to you over here for a sec?" Frankie asked and Jane eyed him curiously before she nodded.

"I'll be right back," Jane murmured to Maura before she dipped her head to kiss the ME's cheek.

"Nice to see you two lovebirds at the same time," Korsak commented and Jane rolled her eyes before she moved to follow her brother away from the table.

"You know, it's not exactly easy walking around like this, right?" Jane teased and Frankie guffawed at himself before he moved back to help his sister away from the table.

"Sorry, I'm not used to you needing help," he teased her and she used her cane to whack him in the stomach. "Okay, you know what? Maybe I'll just keep this then." Frankie threatened as he pulled a ring box out of his pocket.

"I thought I lost that!" Jane said excitedly and then she glared at her brother, "why the _hell _didn't you tell me you had it?" She accused.

"Oh, I thought Maura would have told you she gave it to me," Frankie defended as he handed the right back to his sister.

"She saw it?" Jane groaned before Frankie shook his head.

"Nah, she said it fell out of your blazer when they put you in the ambulance but that she didn't look," Frankie explained, "she said she only wanted to see it when you were ready to give it to her… so, any idea when that will be?" Jane opened the box and smiled down at the unique gold band. She glanced around behind her back to see Maura chatting animatedly to Korsak, Frost, and Susie and her heart felt like it leaped in her chest.

"Soon," Jane commented, "after I can actually get down on one knee," Jane joked.

"So chivalrous!" Angela commented as she walked out of the kitchen doors followed by a plethora of servers. "Why were you late, missy?" Jane's mother asked accusingly and Jane tried not to blush.

"I mean, I can't exactly rush right now," Jane sassed her mother.

"Sorry, sweety," Angela stopped beside her children and kissed them each on the cheek. "Frankie, be a doll and bring this to the table, will you?"

"Ah, don't we have caterers for a reason?" Frankie protested but at Angela's glare, he followed her orders.

"It's a beautiful ring, honey, are you sure you want to wait to give it to her?" Angela asked as Jane tucked the object in question into her pants pocket.

"I just want it to be… right, and it doesn't feel right to give it to her when she has to take care of me. That's not why I'm asking her to marry me, you know?" Jane asked her mother and the elder Rizzoli smiled and nodded.

"I can understand that, but I'm sure she knows," Angela reasoned. Jane seemed to mull the opinion over in her head before a grin spread across her face.

"Do you think you could help me with something, Ma?" Jane asked her mother and Angela nodded before the question was even fully out of her daughter's mouth.

* * *

Maura sat happily as she spoke with her friends and was glad when Angela led Jane back to the table to sit next to her. Maura immediately pushed a bottle of beer in front of Jane and then placed her hand on the Detective's thigh.

"As promised," the blonde joke and Jane grinned at her.

"I thought your doctor said you were supposed to be drinking water and prune juice," Korsak teased.

"No," Jane denied, "_my _doctor promised me I could drink a beer if I agreed to accompany her to this Christmas party," Jane corrected and her brother laughed.

"So _that's _how Maura dragged your ass out of the house," Frankie teased and Jane grinned at him.

"Yup, that and the mention of wings and fries…" Jane said as she happily started to eat the food on the plates in front of them. Frankie was quick to join her and Angela rolled her eyes.

"My children… people would think you were raised in a barn," she commented.

"What?" The Rizzoli children asked in unison and the table laughed before they also joined in on the food.

The group had decided to do a secret Santa exchange that year and everyone was pleased with their gifts. Korsak had gotten Angela a new pair of oven mitts that she thought were adorable. Angela had gifted Maura a new kind of tea that the ME thought smelled delightful. Maura bought Frankie a book about engines and how to get rid of grease stains and he thought it was very thoughtful. Frankie had pulled Frost's name out of the hat and he thought it would be funny to wrap up his ChockerKin action figure for the man. Frost thought the gift was both funny and caring and he leaned in to kiss Frankie's cheek, causing Korsak to whistle and Frankie to blush. Frost had gotten Susie a new baseball glove which she liked. Susie had gotten Jane a book that detailed the entire history of the Red Sox and Jane was excited to have never seen it before. Jane had gotten Korsak a pack of air fresheners and Frost almost spat out his drink when he saw how red the older man's face got. Jane had heard from Frankie how much Frost had been complaining and she thought it would be a funny gift; which it was.

All in all, everyone enjoyed the evening greatly but none more than Maura, who had never experienced a Christmas party quite like this. She was raised outside of the realm of religion and so had not celebrated the holiday with her family. Sitting at the Dirty Robber though, surrounded by her friends and family, she'd never been happier. She leaned against Jane and felt the brunette kiss the side of her head. The squad captain walked over to the group and insisted on a photo and they all smiled at the camera. Angela followed after the captain to insist that he send the photo to her so that she could get a few framed.

* * *

"Okay, Ma, I think that'll do it," Jane commented as she looked at the way the restaurant was decorated.

"Yeah, it's perfect," Angela agreed. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay and-"

"I'm sure, Ma," Jane sassed and rolled her eyes. "Thank you though." Jane smiled at her mother and then hugged her. "You think she'll like it?"

"I think she'll love it," Angela said and then she squeezed Jane's hand. "Call me tomorrow and let me know how it goes."

"I will," Jane promised and then her mother left.

* * *

"Jane, I thought we could order pizza for dinner since you've been feeling so well lately," Maura called into her house as she got home from work. "Jane?" Maura called again after the lack of response. She walked into her house and noticed first that the Detective was nowhere to be seen. She noticed second that there was a single flower laid upon the table next to a handwritten note in Jane's messy, left-handed scrawl. She walked over to the table and picked up the sunshine plumeria before she read the note.

_Hey Maur,_

_Dinner is on me tonight, meet me at Gino's after work. Wear something you love. _

_-Jane _

Maura smiled at the note and then walked up to her bedroom to change. Jane never stopped surprising her. Maura quickly dressed in one of her favorite red dresses, the one she had worn on her first full workday with Jane. She smiled as she recalled how nice Jane had been to her and how the Detective had gone out of her way to make sure that Maura was included. She slipped her feet into a pair of charcoal heels and, just as it always did, she felt her confidence raise with her height. Maura drove back toward the restaurant that Jane had requested she'd meet her at. She pulled into a parking spot and as she got out of her car, she smiled at the pine green door that she'd been so wary of the first time she'd seen it. She remembered Jane taking her there and felt herself smiling at the memory. Had that been their first date? It was hard to tell. Everything always felt so natural with Jane that the lines of their friendship and relationship always seemed to blur together.

Maura opened the door and entered the room. Much like it was the first time Maura had visited the restaurant, it was decorated in an odd mix of rustic and classy. Much like herself and Jane though, despite the differences in the room, the themes fit together perfectly. This time though, all the tables except for one had been removed from the room. All the televisions were off and the speakers played the familiar sound of one of Maura's favorite classical music playlists. Jane stood next to the table in the center of the room holding a bottle of Maura's favorite wine, grinning like a fool.

"This is a lovely surprise, Jane," Maura commented as she approached the brunette.

"You got here faster than I thought you would," Jane laughed nervously and set the bottle of wine down on the table to help Maura out of her coat. "Must not have taken you long to choose your outfit."

"No, not long," Maura agreed as Jane took her coat.

"Is that the same dress you wore last time we were here?" Jane asked as she eyed how the material hugged Maura's curves.

"Yes… where did you get the suit?" Maura asked as she moved her hand to feel the material of Jane's tailored suit. Jane had paired the suit with a nice red blouse and Maura grinned as she realized that they matched.

"Uhh… my Ma helped me pick it out," Jane admitted sheepishly but Maura just smiled at her.

"She chose very well," Maura complimented and Jane grinned.

"Thank you, you look beautiful as ever," Jane complimented Maura back and then leaned down to kiss the ME sweetly. "Here," Jane moved to pull Maura's chair out for her and the ME sat.

"Jane, this is lovely, what's the special occasion?" Maura asked and Jane shrugged as waiters stepped out of the kitchen door.

"Greek salad, Penne all' Arrabbiata, and cucumber water as a palate cleanser," one of the waiters spoke as the others organized the dishes on the table. "They both pair wonderfully with Jane's choice of wine, we will return to the kitchen, please let us know when you are ready for dessert," he said in an Italian accent and Jane thanked the staff before they returned to work.

"I thought this place was closed on Saturdays," Maura mused aloud and Jane grinned.

"Not if your cousin is the owner," Jane shrugged. "Here," Jane said as she poured Maura a glass of wine and then herself one. Maura and Jane ate and enjoyed each other's company while classical music played softly in the background.

"Jane, this is amazing," Maura said as she sipped her wine and Jane smiled at her from across the table and reached to hold the ME's hand.

"You're amazing," Jane complimented and Maura blushed. "You amaze me every day. You never stop surprising me with how sweet and thoughtful you are. You're the smartest person I've ever met and I love how you use that intelligence to show how much you care about the people you love. I love how you love to share your knowledge with others, and how kind you are to everyone you meet. I love how in awe you are about what human beings can do… and I love that I am in awe of you, Maura, every minute of every day."

"Jane," Maura breathed out through the tears that had gathered in her eyes. Jane smiled from across the table and then pulled the ring box out of her pocket, slipped out of her chair to kneel on the floor, and flipped the lid open. Maura gasped at the beautiful gold band. She thought it was exquisite. It was tasteful and artistic and unique in design. It was perfect… Jane was perfect.

"Maura Dorthea Isles, will you marry me?" Jane asked through the emotion in her throat and Maura smiled as tears spilled onto her cheeks as she looked into Jane's kind, brown eyes.

"Yes," Maura whispered, and Jane stood to ease the gold band onto Maura's finger and then pull the smaller woman into a passionate kiss that sealed the promise of their future together.

_**The End**_

* * *

**So with all the personal stuff happening IRL right now, I figured I'd mark this as complete and finish it off. I may eventually do an epilogue or one more chapter of their wedding but I just don't have the kind of time required for me to commit to this the way**** I like to. **

**I want to thank every single person who took the time to review this story! It not only helped me write something that you liked but also aided me in honing my writing skills! **

**If I've left anybody with any questions about this story, feel free to send me a PM to ask what happened! **

**Until the next one! Thank you all! -JJ**


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